What's in a name? A lot, if you're trying to market your big-ticket fighter aircraft to other countries, which could explain all the rhetoric around what constitutes a "fifth-generation fighter." Long-time aerospace journalist Bill Sweetman (who recently took over my old job at Defense Technology International) has a couple good posts on this over at the magazine's Ares blog:
The dogfight over the correct classification of fighter aircraft continues. As Ares noted earlier this month, the Navy's Super Hornet program manager resists Lockheed Martin's attempt to apply the "fifth-generation" tag exclusively to the JSF and F-22 -- implying that everything else is on the road to obsolescence. Now, in a Tuesday-morning breakfast meeting (scroll down to 'Chinese Airpower') with reporters, USAF chief of staff Gen. Michael Moseley has coined "Generation 4.5" to describe the latest Sukhoi Su-30MKK variants, China's J-10 and the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Without putting words into the chief's mouth, I'd suggest that 4.5 implies everything that the F-22 and JSF share, except all-aspect, broadband stealth -- fighters like the Super Hornet, Eurofighter, Rafale, Gripen and the latest Su-30s use a combination of radar cross-section reduction measures, onboard jammers and decoys for self-defense.
Fighter competitions always bring out the best in everyone.
