^Funny. I know a whole raft of defense contract engineers and they've all said pretty much the opposite about a lot of Russian tech. Especially their aircraft. Described them as all balls and no finesse with decades old electronics.
Also just had a friend (non US citizen working for a non-US company btw) come back from China and Russia. He's an EE with a PhD in physics. He was very impressed by what he saw of China's tech - and very unimpressed with what Russia showed him.
Guess it all depends on who saw what - and who you talk to. ;D
-40hz
Russian aircraft technology is waaaaaay behind the U.S. Their aircraft, while looking sleek, are very heavy. While their engines produce a lot of thrust, they are heavy and don't get good gas mileage. Basically they still use nuts and bolts where U.S. aircraft use high stress rivets and special titanium bolts, which makes for a much lighter aircraft. Not to mention titanium airframes and boron carbide for high stress panels, flight control surfaces and speed brakes.
Of course there's a lot of "other" things that goes along with this, but I signed a non-disclosure agreement and really don't want to go to jail.... :o
-Tinman57
Dunno. This was about 17 years ago, so that was then...
I remember they described an SU (IIRC) fighter that could hover while oriented vertically, fall backwards then fly upside down. (I don't recall the model number or if they'd mentioned it.) Kind of like this:
1)
------>
2)
stop, hover & flip
3)
<------
They'd seen it in defense videos and claimed that there wasn't anything in the west that approached the maneuverability of that particular jet.
But it really does depend on who you talk to. A lot of stuff is not very well known, and then you have things like that one general alluded to - god only knows what he was talking about. (I forget the reference - perhaps someone else knows.)
I've still got a defense catalog and DVD around here somewhere from a gig a while back. Some of the weaponry in there is pretty freaky. e.g. There's a type of rifle/rocket/grenade launcher in it designed to kill people that have taken cover behind something or that are in a foxhole. The projectile simply explodes overhead, killing everything underneath. I forget the details. (Oddly enough, the actual physical catalog and DVD I saw that in you can't get without clearance, but they at one point had a lot of it publicly available on an open web site. Go figger.)
-Renegade
Personally I wouldn't trust any video unless it was examined and proven to be real and not some video graphics. They've hyped up things in the past, like their Mig 25 Foxbat's, trying to make the rest of the world think they had superior technology. It actually worked for a while until a Soviet-U.S. spy found different. lol While they are a beautiful aircraft, well, see my post above.
As far as the exploding ordinance, it is being (or has been) tested and in production by a U.S. company. Israel, on the other hand, has created a automatic carbine rifle that shoots around the corner. Not only that, but it has a video scope with laser dot accuracy. Now that's pretty awesome.