Although it is limited by the absence of cutting-edge AESA radar, the Su-35 is considered the best dogfighter and continues to be a very capable and versatile missile platform against both air and ground targets. To compare the classic American F-15 Eagle fighter with the Su-35S “Flanker E,” Russia’s newest competitor for the title of greatest Fourth Generation fighter, we should examine the two aircraft’s strengths and weakness and how those will affect their capacity to carry out different missions.
The Su-35S is equipped with a potent Irbis-E passive electronically scanned array radar that can detect objects on the ground and has a range of up to 400 kilometers. The APG-63 V3 Active Electronically Scanned Array radar of the F-15, however, is better—harder to jam, higher resolution, and more difficult to track.
The Su-35 is also equipped with an infrared search and track system (IRST), which enables it to establish an aircraft’s general location within a fifty-kilometer range. This feature could be very helpful for spotting stealth aircraft at closer ranges. But on the F-15 there is no IRST.
Talon HATE, a new add-on pod that has recently entered service, will allow the F-15 to network with the stealth fighter F-22 Raptor, which uses an unconventional datalink, as well as provide an IRST and give data fusion with other air and surface sensors. The Raptors could fly ahead, spot hostile targets, and communicate the targeting information to F-15s firing missiles at a safer distance to the rear using this method.
With an average radar cross-section of five meters squared, the F-15 was not intended to be stealthy, and it isn’t either. According to reports, the Su-35 can reach a radar cross-section between one and three meters squared thanks to its stealth architecture. As a result, the Su-35 will appear on radars less quickly. However, a one meter squared radar cross-section may still be detected at pretty great distances by sophisticated current radars, therefore this does not shield it from being targeted by long-range missiles.
The most recent air-to-air missiles have a range of well over 100 kilometers. The Russian aviation establishment is less certain than the United States Air Force that beyond visual range (BVR) conflict, with missiles fired over great distances, will rule air warfare in the twenty-first century.
It asserts that electronic deterrents and evasive actions will significantly lower the hit probability against agile fighter aircraft below the anticipated hit rate of fifty to seventy percent. Russian aircraft are still built to engage in BVR warfare, but they do so with the understanding that short-range combat will probably follow after BVR volleys.
In comparison to the F-15C, which only has eight hardpoints for missiles, the Su-35 has twelve or more. This is a definite advantage for the Su-35, which will probably fire several missiles at once to increase the hit chance, although this advantage might only last a short while.
By installing quad-rail racks, which would quadruple the F-15’s loadout to sixteen, Boeing is offering to modernize F-15s. This would let F-15s that were deployed in the rear to act as “missile boats,” firing at targets that an F-22 vanguard has painted with stealth fighters.
However, the F-15 currently has an advantage in terms of missiles. The AIM-120D (160-kilometer range) and K-77M long-range, radar-guided air-to-air missiles are both carried by the F-15 and Su-35 aircraft (200 kilometers range). Although the relative efficiency of their seekers has not yet been determined, these missiles are essentially in the same class and would most likely be launched below their maximum range when deployed against fighter-type aircraft to enhance the likelihood of a kill.
The R-37M missile, which has a super-long range of 300–400 kilometers and is designed to destroy an awkward tanker and AWACS support aircraft, may also be fired by the Su-35.
The Su-35’s L175M Khibiny radar jamming device is another perk. In contrast to the American AESA radars, which are thought to be impervious to jamming, the AIM-120 air-to-air missiles are thought to have a high failure rate against Khibiny-protected aircraft. While a new system is being suggested as part of the Eagle 2040 upgrade package, the Eagle’s Tactical Electronic Warfare Set countermeasure system, which goes back to the 1970s, is still in use.
Because of its low wing loading and high thrust-to-weight ratio, the Eagle isn’t a pushover when it comes to maneuverability; in fact, it was one of the first models to demonstrate that a heavy fighter could nevertheless execute precise, energy-efficient maneuvers and accelerate while ascending.
The Su-35, though, is simply in a different league. It employs vector-thrust turbofans, which means that each of its engine nozzles can move independently. This enables it to make tight spins and yaws and maintain high angles of attack, which are maneuvers that are impossible for regular aircraft to match.
In a slow-speed dogfight, the Su-35 will reliably maneuver around an F-15. With their heat-seeking AIM-9X and R-73 missiles, the F-15 and Su-35 are more evenly matched when it comes to armaments. Both missile types may be fired “off-boresight”—at targets that are outside the frontal cone of the aircraft—via helmet-mounted sights.
Kill probabilities for such missiles are estimated to be between 70 and 80 percent. The advantages of better maneuverability in upcoming close-range battles may actually be diminished due to the lethal effectiveness of these short-range air-to-air missiles and the fact that aircraft no longer need to be directed at their enemies in order to launch missiles at them.
Up to 14 of the Su-35S’s hardpoints’ approximately 17,000 pounds of ammunition can be used for air-to-ground operations. The F-15C can’t transport any. due to the fact that it is only an air superiority fighter. To be fair, modifying an Eagle for ground combat would not be an impossible feat; Israel did it in the 1970s and used them to attack the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq.
23,000 pounds of ammunition may be transported by the F-15E Strike Eagle. While it can fly just as quickly as the F-15C and carry the same air-to-air weapons, its larger weight makes it slightly less nimble and maneuverable in combat at close range. In addition, the Russian military employs a narrower variety of types of precision-guided munitions than the American military.
However, the Su-35 is well-equipped to use them with to its Irbis-E radar’s ground-attack mode.
The United States has a history of producing expensive aircraft with lengthy service lives. The Soviet Union and later Russia had a history of producing reasonably priced aircraft with short service lives and more intensive maintenance needs. Some Russian fighters, like the Su-30 Flanker from before, have also experienced serious reliability problems.
The Su-35, which is expected to last 6,000 flying hours, seems to close the gap in this regard. The F-15C and E are designed to survive 8,000 and 6,000 hours, respectively, and the former is probably going to go through a life-extension program.
Contrarily, the Su-35s leaving manufacturing facilities will be towards the end of their operational careers, whereas the majority of F-15 airframes are from the 1970s and 1980s.
For years, Boeing has promoted the Silent Eagle, an advanced, stealthy variant of the F-15, and it may have finally found a buyer in Israel. The Eagle 2040C upgrade package for the F-15C, which Boeing has just started to promote, is intended to keep the air-superiority version operational through the year 2040.
First off, the Su-35 would continue to have an advantage in mobility. Ten times smaller than the Su-35, the Silent Eagle may have a radar cross section as low as one-tenth of a meter squared from the front. The sides and back would still have a substantial stealth advantage on a head-on pass, but they would continue to be unnoticed.
A new electronic countermeasure system, a potential increase in missile capacity, IRST and F-22 datalink capability, and Talon HATE pod capability are all included in the Eagle 2040C package.
In the end, the efficiency of missiles and electronic countermeasures rather than the aircraft carrying them may increasingly define future air-combat capabilities, particularly for non-stealth airframes.
Although it is limited by the absence of cutting-edge AESA radar, the Su-35 nonetheless wins as the best dogfighter and continues to be a very capable and adaptable missile platform against both air and ground targets.
While the F-15E can still carry more weaponry for ground attack, current models of the F-15 are still capable air superiority fighters with cutting-edge radar. Extraordinary air-to-air payload and unmatched data fusion with assisting ships, satellites, and aircraft would be features of upgraded F-15s.
A fascinating, albeit limited, frontal stealth capability may also be offered by the Silent Eagle. Less than 100 Su-35S aircraft are expected to be deployed to Russia, China, Malaysia, and Algeria, while additional orders could come in the future. In addition to the well over 400 F-15s of various variants already serving in the Air Forces of Saudi Arabia, Israel, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan, the United States is anticipated to maintain a force of over 200 F-15Es and a lesser number of F-15Cs and Ds for decades into the future.
