What Russia’s Stealth Fighter Developments Mean for America

[K.Ingraham]

Air Force budget faces cuts of gold plated near-useless toys we don't need and can't afford and the age-old trick of "the Russians are coming the Russians are coming!" gets trotted out. *Yawn*

The Russians can afford those even less than we can. They can design the cool stuff with the best of us, but of all the great miltech they have designed in the last twenty years, almost nothing got beyond the prototype. Hell, let's hope they build squadrons of the things. It'll break them faster than a barrage of ICBMs.
The only thing the USAF needs is tankers and more C-17s and A-10s. They can actually get used and no general will get fired if he loses one.

[Jim]

The former Soviet Union had a long tradition of showing off prototype aircraft as their strength. I would take this with a large grain of salt.

[K.Ingraham]

their economy is doing better than most think. They've been going back to their old ways in the last few years, which means everything goes towards new weapons and nothing towards social programs.

Neither is true and the latter comment is especially wrong. Unless tending to your basic security needs is wrong. If anything, given the threats they face and the ignorance emminating from their former cold war enemy, they are being restrained.