Russia’s “answer” to the F-22 is the PAK-FA which is currently being developed.
IIRC it has been confirmed that the PAK-FA will not have forward swept wings as the Su-47. We will supposedly find out for sure at the MAKS airshow in August, when it might be shown for the first time. It was scheduled to fly for the first time this year, but it might have been pushed to 2010. Hopefully we’ll get a look at the design at least.
The Senate has voted to stop production.
When I Google SU-47 I see nothing but articles that it’s cancelled?
You might want to read that article that Mhendo linked to. The pilot in question was an F15 driver and his point was that in regards to exercises with the Indian airforce, they were able to surprise the USAF using equipment that the Eagle was supposed to have outclassed for the most part.
While not a really good example for the eagle, it does show what a country can do with what they have. The Raptor is a dead program, while it can probably be restarted, i dont see the political urgency to do so. Politically the F35 is a more useful program for investing clout, multi national participation, decent performance and will do about what the Eagle currently does now in terms of air superiority.
For all thats good about the Raptor, its main failing is that it came on stream too late.
Declan
I want to address this, because [Hatin’ on the Gonzo removed because it’s irrelevant and board rules prohibit it]. Well, anyhow, Air Superiority (AS) fighters cannot and do not effectively engage ground targets. This has been th case since WW2, and the difference between AS and Ground Attack (GA) has sharpened ever since.
GA planes need to be slow, although this means they only go a few hundred mph. They need a metric crapload of every form of killing weaponry we can stick on the plane. They need to be so tough they can’t be brought down short of ramming headfirst into a mountain or eating a few missiles. They need… almost no advanced avionics whatsoever. They need to be easily repairable. Thus far, the best GA plane in the world is probably still the A-10 Thunderbolt (a.k.a. Warthog).
AS planes, however, are meant for duels able to kill enemy planes before they can scream for help. They need mostly missiles, but modern AS planes have stepped well away from the “missile sledge” concept of Vietnam. They need advanced avionics, because what’s a million bucks in computers if it saves a 50 million dollar jet?
Basically, it’s a tottally different role.
For reasons I won’t get into, the Air Force has always had a veryhard time swallowing its pride and fielding GA planes. They HATE GS planes, because they do not want and never wanted to be backing up the army. They’d rather send a billion-dollar plane out, drop a bomb on a specific target, and go home. Unfortunately for them, that’s not really awesomely useful unless that bomb is a nuke, and we have some reasons for not doing that. Precision bombing does help, but ultimately you’re probably going to have to kill some guys, and GS birds do that in spades.
The Su-47 was a technology demonstrator and as a testbed for various technologies, I don’t think it was meant to be deployed for anything else. The PAK-FA is their upcoming new fighter, but not overly much is known about it yet. Sukhoi’s director Mikhail Pogosyan has mentioned that it will be shown this year though. I’m very curious about how it will turn out :).
Shame on you Americans!
You have forgotten how to spend absurd ammounts of money in super cool planes
we bugeted for 187 Raptor’s, they’re not going away.
Yeah, but the amount of money budgeted for them is only insane, not absurd. 
Well, unless it rains on them.
True enough if reliability and readiness goals can be met. I worry that under wartime pressures the already problematic maintenance and upkeep would degrade pretty fast, leading to a lot of F-22s being grounded or having to fly with ineffective antiradar coating and/or other uncorrected problems.
Let’s see… Slow (and good loiter time), instantaneous firepower of a light cruiser, rugged, easily repaired, basic avionics.
You mean something like this? 
OK, but I’ll be watching you… and whatever you do, DO NOT stop producing the A-10