The YAK's..do you have a link for that? The Germans made some great pioneering airframes....Not sure the Russians ever have. Look. I buy russian rubbish from time to time...meaning rarely...I had a Lada, bought here in the 90's (a friend with a Russian wife talked me into it......or maybe it was his wife that convinced me)... and it was by far the worst piece of junk I've ever owned. Total garbage that should have gone from the factory straight to landfill. That would be one example...The other is me spending a decade doing maintenance on commercial aviation aircraft around the world. I never had the opportunity to work on any Russian aircraft owned by the airlines I worked for...but I worked alongside many who had. I have never, not once, not ever....heard anything good about them. For example...Russian aircraft engines need overhauls CONSIDERABLY more often than real engines. Their avionics is out of the stone age.....etc. That was the commercial aircraft...but it doesn't make me want to rush out and buy a MIG...Look I think we are under the pump with the JSF but I don't think anything Russian would give our Air Force a better operational capability....I'd personally like to see us owning nuclear subs with nuclear Tridents....and a mobile nuclear missile capability for protection of our North (would consider Russian missiles for the job)...Wouldn't mind us getting some B-1B's with some aptly tipped cruise missiles to stand off and cook our enemies if any are dumb enough to invade us.....Right now we are almost defenceless...Unless we want US bases across the country (not something I have a big problem with)....we need some high impact defence capability - instead of the inoperative or inadequate weapons systems we have.
