Ramzey,
What are you talking about? Why the heck should I feel any need to "blame" mexico for buying military stuff? Maybe you have a chip on your shoulder, but I'm just pointing out that their decision seems to have a much bigger political justification than a military one. I usually cheer anytime another country buys russian hardware because I know that they'll be that much easier to defeat in the future if necessary...
If you see some sort of hidden agenda there that's really your problem, but I'm certainly not angry at all. It's their decision and they bought what they thought would benefit them the most. Or at least benefit whoever made the decision...
My only real concern is that if we ever had to try to work together with Mexico for defense, their newest stuff is totally incompatible with ours and that could present a problem. It's almost inconsequential that I find it a bit frustrating that they could have gotten a better capability that would integrate with ours for about the same money. But instead they chose some pretty new airplanes that don't integrate with anything including their own defense systems, for image and political reasons. The SU-27 really does look cool both on paper and at airshows.
Still, don't you think that the fact that they're visibly aligning themselves with strongly communist countries at a time that the US is having a long-overdue immigration and border control debate is at least worth noting? I think it's noteworthy. I figure if that's what makes them happy, then they should go with it including all the consequences, but let's not be blind to their motivations and agenda. One of the two nations that share a border with the US has chosen to buy military hardware that is compatible with the military hardware of nearby communist countries that hate the US with a passion, rather than buy hardware that could integrate with NATO standard hardware used by the US and Canada. That makes it a political statement more than anything else, because the purchase of a mere dozen fighters isn't really significant from a pure military capability standpoint.
Aquashrimp, the airframe itself is only a small part of the puzzle. That su-27 all by itself may beat an F-16 all by itself, but nobody fights alone anymore. What makes the US stuff superior is our effort put into integrating systems so they get info to the pilot as easily as possible. The F-16 still has better cockpit ergonomics than the SU-27 variants, and the F-16 can be purchased with datalink capabilities that could, for example, integrate seamlessly with NORAD data feeds in the event of a real defense emergency. But as it is now, the stuff they have is just going to be in the way, because it can't be integrated in any useful fashion.
In any case, I wouldn't suggest that Mexico buy a new build F-16 to Israeli specs... I'd suggest a lease or buy on refurbished air defense F-16s. They're lighter, can be easier/cheaper to maintain, are quite reliable, and the older F-16s matched with the newer engines have very good basic performance. An air defense F-16 with external fuel tanks and AMRAAM, when datalinked to ground and airborn surveilance radar, is a very capable system.
