It was always trial and error for American Military "Intelligence" to see that maybe Russians are not good enough. Let's fly U-2 as they do not have missiles that'll fly that high while first russian AAA flew higher than any military aircraft today.

The U.S. is technologically advanced. No doubt about that. The Russians are also technologically advanced. There's no doubt about that, either. Each side has its ups and its downs. It's practical. Get used to it.

Russians are, in more ways than one, superior to Americans. If you take into account all military considerations, Russia has the biggest biological and chemical weapons' arsenal in the world; it has the biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons, tactical and otherwise. It's Russia who built the only missile to completely and effectively render the American defences incapable -- the Sunburn -- and the U.S. initiated proceedings to ban it.

Now, we could go on and on about this topic and still get nowhere. Truth is, there are both +ve and -ve points on both sides of the flair -- there are some areas where the U.S. is advanced. There are some areas where Russia is advanced. However, present circumstances in mind, although the Russian economy is in shambles, the Russian military is far more superior and powerful in the world than of any other country. And bear in mind that superiority is not guaranteed by what you incorporate into a system. You could very well build a kitchen in a fighter plane and that would be laughable. It is that which matters in a combat scenario, heavyweight or lightweight, that matters and with that in mind, Russians rule the world right now.

Nothing taking off of the Admiral Kuzenestov and its ski jump can do so with a full load. They are restricted to air-superiority mussions. Attack craft with a load of bombs would crash into the sea with such a short landing field even with a ski-jump.