Agree. 24/7 with huge manpower can make the difference. But with the factories gaining knowledge this fast we will be suprised soon.
Russia leaned on China and India but with enough cash flow now they will return. US will no longer have the edge. Not even with JSF/F22. Sounds futuristic but looking at the past the Russians have shown more then USA.
If by "past" you mean "1960-1980" I would agree that Russian airframes were generally on par with US ones, if you ignored the vacuum tube avionics and short lifespan engines. The Flanker G/H is on par with the F-18 Super Hornet E/F, for a similar unit cost.(Note that the avionics might have been assembled in Russia, but they were fabricated in southeast Asia, the US, Europe, and Israel) As of yet, Russia has yet to produce anything more advanced. The F-18 and F-15 took 12-1 losses against F-22's in large scale simulations with sea sparrow and PAC-3 air defense support and AWACS cover. There were no "Red-Team" restrictions. I.E, both the US Navy and Air Force deployed everything of note in the conventional Air Defense arsenal, and came up with...nothing. As of yet, there has been no indication that any country outside of the US has developed a method for countering stealth technology besides throwing enough jets in the air to track back the air-to-air launches to the source.
The JSF has yet to be fully evaluated in its combat capacity, but expect it to be at least a little bit more impressive than the Super Hornet.
So could, in 20 years(or 10 for the JSF), the Russians or the Chinese produce something on par with the top of the line US aircraft of today? Certainly, when will India or Pakistan or India see these aircraft? At least another 5-10 years after that. Barring a radical shift in the current situation (US economy collapses and USAF and USN budgets cut by 75-80%
the USAF and USN will likely hold the edge for the next 30 years or so. Even if my proposed scenario bears fruit, say... tomorrow, the closest competitors have 10-15 years of ground to cover. Now, I am not including some type of devastating WW3 scenario where China, Russia, and the US are completely destroyed militarily and currently bit players expand rapidly. I don't think that scenario very likely though.
If you have some type of facts or figures to counter my claims, go ahead and wip em' out.
P.S: Sorry, this is a bit of a thread-Jacking