In my personal experience of talking to all sorts of people over a number of decades, being in the military makes you an expert on nothing other than being in that particular military.
It seems when you are in the military... especially western militaries, they don't seem to bother training troops to respect their enemies at all let alone learn about their equipment and weapons... it is a type of ignorance that is the worst kind because it is essentially someone thinking they know and on reflection actually should have some idea but in actual fact have coffee table magazine level knowledge or worse.
I am no expert either and my brother was in both the New Zealand Army and the Air Force... he knows very little about Russian or Soviet military equipment... because he doesn't care about it... he is not interested... it was never part of his job to know and so he doesn't.
Of course he does not pretend to be an expert on military equipment either.
Most of my cold war knowledge was filtered through the western experts that delivered it and those thinking spin is new... it is not... those complaining about the new Doctor Who being a woman and being preachy.... Doctor Who has always been preachy... even the Cosby show and 8 is enough and Family ties, they were all telling us how to think... trying to set our moral compass to whatever setting was being set at the time.
Anybody can lie and of course anybody can be wrong... some myths are deep rooted and are mixed in with belief in what you are doing is right and everyone else is wrong, so for some people accepting Russia as an equal is the equivalent of disrespecting all the western patriots who have been calling them the enemy for the longest time.
Feeding trolls is not good, but ignoring them and allowing them to repeat lies that have been proven wrong 1,000 times does not help either.
It has already been suggested we should have a locked section where common myths are refuted with the evidence that proves they are rubbish but they keep getting repeated by people who don't know any better though perhaps should.
It’s kinda like the retards that think that being goodlooking as a man isn’t the most important thing when it comes to getting women when it is. Stealth is the most important thing in air to air combat. Most planes are shot down by planes that they didn’t detect. It’s absolutely ridiculous thing seeing people on this forum arguing the opposite.
Hilarious... the best looking guy on the planet with no job, no house or assets, and no interest in working sleeps alone.
An average looking guy with serious money on the other hand...
But this has nothing to do with fighter aircraft... fighter aircraft operate with weapons and the weapons US stealth fighters use are limited and likely wont be very effective in actual combat against a peer opponent... which means combat would come down to a knife fight... and Russian fighters are at a clear advantage in that situation.
The Americans learned from the Vietnam war that BVR missiles are bullshit and to win at air to air combat you need a gun and Sidewinders... well when the cold war ended and they got the chance to test with equipment the Russians were using they realised WVR combat is suicide because they were no safe from R-73s and helmet mounted sights, so they had to fund the AMRAAM... but AMRAAM isn't some magic weapon... it is no Hittile.
When they fail... and US stealth fighters can't carry very many at all while remaining stealthy... it then comes down to guns, for which TVC engines gives a serious advantage... but more importantly US fighters of all types have the Russian IADS network to deal with first and they simply don't have the numbers or the tools to open that gate... and while they are doing that ICBMs and SLBMs will be on their way and who will care what the score is with fighter planes?