(Yeah… I accidentally said J85 rather than J58 in the beginning!)Despite a popular focus on stealth — and to a lesser extent, data fusion — in today’s fighters, America’s turbofan advantage is truly just as valuable, setting American fighters apart through a combination of high power output and carefully crafted radar and infrared detection mitigation. In 2023, both Russian and Chinese stealth fighter programs took a big step toward closing the capability gap with America’s 5th-generation jets, finally marrying their low-observable airframes to higher-powered engines purpose-built for stealth applications. Let’s talk about what this means, and how the US is responding.