The Weekly Standard’s Michael Goldfarb believes the Russian PAK FA (prototype flown last month) is just that, citing a new Air Power Australia analysis by Carlo Kopp and Peter Goon. The defense analysts say “available evidence” shows a “mature production PAK FA” could compete with the F-22 in very low observable performance and “will outperform” it “aerodynamically and kinematically.” That means, they say, the PAK FA renders all legacy US fighter aircraft and the F-35, upon which the Pentagon has staked the future of US airpower, “strategically irrelevant and non viable after the PAK FA achieves IOC in 2015.” Goldfarb posits: “If the Russians had flown the PAK FA nine months ago, you have to think Congress would have rolled the White House to keep the F-22 line open, which it almost did anyway.” (Both Goldfarb’s article and the APA analysis are worth noting.)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.