Publications about, that there were exercises in Egypt, in which, in a simulated air battle, fighters Rafale and Su-35SE of French and Russian production, respectively, actively discussed in foreign media.
It all started with a blog post, alleging, as if the Su-35SE "was defeated in a training air battle against the French Rafale". At the same time, there was no official confirmation of this information from the Egyptian Air Force.. However, this did not become an obstacle for a number of European specialized media., who began to talk about the "superiority of Western aircraft over Russian".
In particular, material, in which the author tries to analyze the "lost Su-35" battle in Egypt, published in the Polish military-themed publication Defence24. Polish author, Without going into the details of, what was the real purpose of the exercises, He writes:
During the training battle, the Russian Su-35 played the role of "aggressor" and was supposed to attack Rafale. However, the French fighter pilot quickly realized, that it is exposed to radar, and with the help of the onboard electronic warfare system – Thales SPECTRA (Self-Protection Equipment to Counter Threats for Rafale Aircraft) drowned out the Su-35 radar without any problems. The pilot of a Russian-made aircraft could not control his weapons, and the Rafale pilot easily tracked the enemy with his radar, counterattacked and was eventually conditionally shot down.
Polish author writes, that thus "has been amply demonstrated, that in a one-on-one confrontation, the French fighter is clearly superior to the Russian-made enemy, besides, straight from the Russian aircraft factory - after the pilot was trained by Russian instructors ".
These conclusions sound, to put it mildly, strangely. Even if this kind of exercise was conducted in the Egyptian Air Force, then draw a conclusion from one conditional air battle about the advantage of one aircraft 4 generations over another, definitely not possible. Indeed, in the variant of the only imitation battle, in any case, one of the aircraft would have prevailed. And if it turned out to be a Su-35, then they would begin to write in the same Poland, that the Russian fighter is “definitely superior to the French Rafale”? there is an opinion, that hardly. Little of, preparation is not taken into account, no pilot experience. Besides, there is no data on the main thing - was the Egyptian Su-35 pilot tasked with conditionally destroying the discovered Rafal, or the task was, in order to work out precisely the departure of the "Rafal" from under a possible attack using the available on-board means.
Without these data, the publication in the Polish press looks like a broadcast of speculation, no more. Moreover, these speculations are clearly aimed at, to contribute to the competition in the global fighter market and organize anti-PR for Russian fighters, that (would you like it in Poland or not) managed to prove themselves perfectly all over the world.
