I would argue the F/A-18 family is the most underrated fighter family at the moment

Mostly because of the success of F-14

But F/A-18 is not bad

The 14 just doesn’t have good AOA performance

But it was extremely successful against 19's, 21's, 23's and 29's

The F-14 is a great interceptor and long range strike, but honestly the hornet is a far better match to counter fighters such at the Su-35

I'd say they all excel at their particular roles

The YF-23 should have also been procured, change my mind

But the Su-35 would be a tough opponent to the F-14.

The F-14 would be slaughtered

Not really, the AIM-54 Phoenix missile would lock on from 64kms away and keep it on its toes

In BVR it would be a decent fight

Closer ranges eh not too good for the Tomcat

But once a close quarters dogfight is brought into the equation (yes they are rare) the 14 would just not have the AOA for the job

If the F-14 has an exceptional pilot then the Su-35 would lose.

Sure the missile ain't capable enough but it's long range enough to keep him on its toes

Now a really underated plane is the F-35

Agreed

Arguably the only plane better than the F-35 is the F-22.

The C variant and the A variant are the best because their wingspan is optimal for CAS and Dogfights

B variant is just to give USMC a placebo

And to Export

F-22 should be Mass produced again

Don't care how expensive

The US made a huge mistake by not producing more F-22s. They should have developed its air to ground capability and cut 350 F-35s in exchange for another 200 F-22s

The B only exists for the USMC obsession with STOL operations

I think they've learned with the F-X though. That plane will be insane with the capabilities it'll bring to the table.

F-22 can Carry SLAM-ER under its wings and GBU-32's in its internal weapons bay

I know this because of Over-G fighters

In Canada we have neglected the CF-18 replacement so now we will be flying our CF-18A and Bs until 2032

Weren't you guys going to choose any of these 3?:

Gripen E
F/A18E Block 3
F-35

Honestly I think the Canadians should go for the block 3 solely because of commonality.

I would like us to procure ideally 70 F/A-18Es and 10 Fs block three along with ten growlers

And if we had more funding then we could also do a split buy with 50 F-35As

I heard that Canada builds parts for the F35 already which also makes it another easy selection

I have been in a facility which produces them, we have quite the infrastructure in place producing them

We also produce hard points

Honestly the F-35A would be a good fit. At this point the Trudeau government needs to stop being indecisive

The more people buy the F35 the cheaper it gets

But there are some serious concerns regarding arctic operations with the single engine. We learned well that with the F-104 (although the F135 is extremely reliable) that a single engine can be a great weakness

Yeah, the same concerns of the navy with the flame out