Turkey's growing military capability has increased competition among major powers. Turkey, which has attracted more attention as a buyer, has raised the issue of jealousy between Russia and the United States in the field of fighter jets.
Russian military expert Igor Korotchenko, who compared the US F-16 fighter jets to Russia's Su-57 yesterday, called the US offer of F-16 instead of F-35 to Turkey unworthy of the country. The expert even called it disrespectful to Turkey. According to him, in terms of function, the F-35s lag far behind the F-16s.
Igor Korotchenko also said that the F-35s are inferior in weight and functionality to the Russian Su-57s, and said that Turkey could become a superpower in Europe by buying Su-57s. Although the expert's opinion is more like a review of a competitor's product, here the comparison becomes more interesting.
EDNews.net made a research of the opinions of military experts and also received an expert's opinion on which aircraft Turkey would prefer to choose in the end.
According to US and NATO experts, there are many comparisons between F-35s and Su-57s. This comparison shows that the F-35s are indeed inferior to the Su-57 in some parameters. For example, according to experts, the most important of these are the weak weapons of the F35, short-range flight, and most importantly, the weak evasion of the target during the attack compared to the Su-57.
U.S. military experts also tried to characterize the Su-57 and pointed out some of its weaknesses. One of them is that the Su-57s could not escape from the radar, despite the fact that they fly faster than the speed of sound.
What are the advantages of Su-57s?
Professor, a military expert Victor Kozulin made an interesting comparison between Su-57s and F-35 fighter jets and spoke about the features of both aircraft with new technological advantages. According to him, with advanced aerodynamic design and the ability to control the thrust vector, the Su-57 attaches great importance to supersonic flight and ergonomic control. In addition, he notes that when American missiles fly in the direction of the target Su-57, the pilot can get enough time to avoid strikes with the help of a new radar that can monitor missile launches over long distances. He also spoke about the features of the F-35 fighter jet, saying that its concept was aimed at providing an attack before detecting an enemy aircraft.
Another Russian aviation expert Dmitry Smirnov shared the same opinion. He noted that the constant change of stealth technology in the United States has led to a decrease in the use of this technology in new aircraft, including the F-35. According to the financial approach of the expert, this type of aircraft, despite its low tactical characteristics, is extremely expensive. For comparison, Dmitry Smirnov noted that while one F-35 fighter costs $ 100-120 million, the SU57 costs only $ 35-40 million.
Despite all these comparisons, there is still no reliable information about the full capabilities of the 5th generation fighters (both F-35 and Su-57).
Despite these comparisons, which fighter would Turkey prefer to see in its arsenal?
The former high-ranking Turkish serviceman, whose name did not want to be given, described Turkey's choice as follows:
"Turkey, in fact, made its biggest investment in the F-35 program. Despite these costs, Turkey is facing a low-cost F-16 offer from the United States. However, Turkey, which does not want to break ties with the West, does not intend to give up the F-16. It is always possible for Turkey to have both Su-35 and Su-57 because of its reasonable price and better relations. However, this still remains an alternative to plan B for Turkey. I think the main issue for Turkey as a NATO member is not to lag behind its "western rivals" in the sky," he added.
Elnur Enveroglu
