“The deadliest F-16 pilot” of the US aviation called Russian Su-35 fighters “trash” compared to American F-16s.

US F-16 pilot retired Lieutenant Colonel Dan Hampton (callsign Two Dogs) called Russian Su-35 fighter jets “junk”, analyzing their capabilities in case of fighting with American F-16s.

He said this in an interview with Voice of America.

“F-16 vs. Su-35? My opinion and the opinion of most professional fighter pilots is that the Su-35 is a typical Russian car and it looks beautiful. They paint it beautifully, put all sorts of cool stars and everything. But deep down it's actually not such a good plane. It looks good at airshows, but my personal opinion is that it's rubbish,” Hampton said.

The American pilot noted that even the radars on Russian aircraft are 30 years behind the American ones.

“AESA radar is an advanced electronic scanning system radar (active phased array antenna – ed.), which is 30 years ahead of the radar on the Su-35,” he said.

Hampton added that the Su-35 is too big and has two engines that smoke and give out the plane.

“It's easy to see, it's easy to pick it up on the radar and shoot it with a long-range missile. And if you get close to it, it's visible 10 miles (16 km – ed.) before it sees you if you ever get into close air combat,” says the pilot.

The other systems on board there are also “typical Russian marketing, they say, that doesn't compare to any in the West.”

“But if you look closely at it, they are actually easy to jam, which we use extensively and our allies that we work with, we train them and give them the same equipment. Electronic jamming is a very big deal. Our aircraft are more survivable .I would not bet on the Su-35 or any Russian-made aircraft in combat,” the American pilot summed up.

Recall that earlier the Russian Su-35 missed the Ukrainian air defense system and launched an expensive scarce missile into nowhere. At the same time, Iran said it had reached an agreement with Russia to buy Su-35 aircraft.

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