That would depend on we expect those individuals of authority to have access to the relevant information on the two aircraft to make any sort of a comparative statement of any substance.
And in this case, I consider the General to almost definitely lack the access to facts as to J-20's capabilities in the same degree that he knows about F-35.
Who knows, maybe J-20 is inferior to F-35. But neither we nor him should have the information available to us to be able to tell. His position as Chief of Staff of the US Air Force gives him expertise in many domains of his trade, and especially much expertise for his own Air Force. But it does not mean his judgement of under development aircraft of foreign adversarial air forces should be taken seriously.
I wouldn't trust any of these high ranking officers further than I can throw them when it comes to comparative fighter aircraft especially for fighters that haven't even been deployed.
I'm not guessing based on "confidential sources". I'm not pulling out facts, rather I'm saying that we have an absence of facts and are unable to make a judgement from that.
Theres no doubt that you are lacking information, but I can assure you that General Goldfein, who flew the "wobbling goblin" knows what he is talking about, and has every bit of intelligence that has EVER been gathered by any of our allies available to him. We disseminate that information to our allied Air Force partners as well....
Your inference that he has NO realistic performance or equipment data on the J-20 belies a very limited understanding of the military and our certainly more than adequate intelligence services..... I would state with absolute confidence that General Goldfein knows the J-20's performance parameters with a range of + or - 10%..
Satelites have no doubt gathered significant intelligence data on the whereabouts and rather exact speeds etc on the J-20, they likely have very exact knowledge of the wing area, and from that data and the lift profile of the wing are able to determine that if approach speed is say 150knots, and the typical touchdown occurs at 100 to 110 knots, a rather simple mathematical equation, wing configuration and area, x airspeed in knots gives you a rather precise gross weight..
Those Russian engines are a known quantity as well??? so your assertion that because you obviously are more well informed than General Goldfein, that his statement that the J-20 is "generationally" similar to the F-117, must be false, because with what YOU know, there is no way to determine that(true dat), and your assumption that because you a very sophisticated and knowledgeable poster on SDF (also true), that General Goldfein could not possibly have more and more accurate information that you, then his statement has to be false????
He is the United States Air Forces "Chief of Staff", and a real honest to God! Fighter Pilot----even you should know, that they "KNOW everything".....
really Blitzo, you are a very bright lad, and smart guys always know what they "don't know", and they also have an idea of when the "other guy" is very well informed??
why do you think I respect the Engineer??? because even though he's a little crotchety, he is very bright, and he has never lied to me, even though we come from very different perspectives, and we have argued, I know how much smarter he is than I am! and I have a great deal of respect for HONEST, Smart People, Jeff Head, BD, Scratch, Deino, Jura, Siege, and yes even you, Blitzo.
