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This whole ordeal starts to look more like this
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this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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chapotraphouse
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I don't believe that fighter generations are the major factor in an air war. I think the range of missile technology is what matters.
You can put a gen 3 up against a gen 5 if you want, the fighter with the longer range missile is going to win by firing at standoff range.
This applies to ground-to-air as well BUT ground systems have the advantage of hiding to get first shot and prevent jets from launching missiles at standoff range.
The issue with the air-to-air situation is that US tech is going to be the best in the world in this field. Your fighters are going to lose to superior missiles. I would only trust cutting edge Chinese missiles to compete but they're not going to sell that.
This means you're gonna have to stick to ground where you get to cover this disadvantage in range with the advantage of first shot from hidden positions.
Israel also doesn't get the US's best stuff. The F-35s Israel has are special variants made for Israel for example. Considering Chinese planes/missiles were able to shoot down French Rafales while piloted by Pakistan they could likely hold their own against the F-35 variant Israel has too.
The reason fighter gen matters is that like you mentioned it's all about hitting the enemy without being hit yourself. Newer jets have better stealth tech, and better engines. Meaning they can stay out of range when seen, and also get closer without being noticed.
This allows them to take advantage of the better missiles which also usually to put new missiles on an old plane would need to be retrofitted. While yes ground stations can launch from hidden spots as soon as they do launch their location is revealed. It's kind of a one time surprise, and then the enemy adds that spot to their map of your launcher network.
Fighters have the advantage of being mobile. So they can be anywhere. Combining the 2, and having fighters do most of the work with your ground based anti-air as a backup, or to support a fighter if it gets in a tough spot is the best way to do it. Since you get the best of both worlds, and it is much harder for the enemy to accurately map out your anti-air network.