A MiG-35 Fulcrum-F performs a demonstration flight over Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast, during Russia’s MAKS airshow in July 2021. Though the Fulcrum-F is Russia’s greatest air superiority fighter, it would struggle to match the US-made F-22 Raptor. (Shutterstock/Ilya Oslyakov)

MiG-35 Fulcrum-F vs. F-22 Raptor: Which Air Superiority Fighter Wins?

Share this link on Facebook

Share this page on X (Twitter)

Share this link on LinkedIn

Share this page on Reddit

Email a link to this page

The MiG-35 Fulcrum-F is a great air superiority fighter—but it is still basically a Cold War-era MiG-29, and would lose to the F-22 in a head-on fight every time.

On paper, both the US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor and the Russian Aerospace Forces’ MiG-35 Fulcrum-F represent the pinnacle of their respective nations’ fighter jet lineages. The F-22 is the world’s premier air superiority fighter, and has been for more than two decades; the MiG-35, first introduced in 2019, is the culmination of a series of upgrades to the Russian Aerospace Forces’ Cold War-era MiG-29 Fulcrum. 

At a glance, both fighter jets have unmistakable similarities. Both are built as pure air superiority jets, and this single mission has given them some similar features; both have two engines and are extremely maneuverable. Yet they were built around fundamentally different design concepts, and the result is that they........

© The National Interest