Explained in detail,
.Why are US jet superiority fighters like the F-15 or F-16 not equipped with canards or thrust vectoring to make them more agile & maneuverable?
The role of the thrust vectoring control (TVC) is mostly misunderstood as I can judge by the ppl.
The absolute flight performance is not increased by the TVC. For turning capability, you need lift force. A lot. If a plane is in a 4G turn the lift force on the airframe is 4 times is the weight of the plane. The thrust of the plane provides the power to keep the speed in turn.
Let’s just assume a Su-30 with 25 tons weight at M0.5. This is ASF (air superiority) configuration. It’s engine produces at M0.5 at 3 km alt about 80 kN thrust based on AL-31 data. Two engines produce 160 kN.
Assuming 30 degrees vectoring the lift increase for thrust is only 80 kN (using trigonometry) while even in 1G level flight weight of the plane is 245kN in a 4G turn it is almost 1000 kN. For this meaningless lift increase (+8%) the Su-30 sacrificed the forward thrust component which is reduced from 160 kN to 138.5 kN. (-14%)
It is simply not worth it. And I assumed only 4G turn which cannot be considered high not even at medium altitude at M0.9.
The TVC has speed limitation. This is for Su-30s.
The TVC is useful at slow speed and high AoA cases and it also helps to initiate and stop turns quicker.
The control surfaces provide the 3 axis control which keeps the plane is a certain AoA position. The TVC extends the capabilities of the control beyond (lower) stall speed. It does nothing else. You can produce forces to control the plane in 3 axis where the conventional way has very little or no effect.
This is a very impressive stunt and it is an amazing engineering feat but in combat, it has 0 usefulness this maneuvers.
Sukhoi Su-35 at Airshow Moscow
But in many vs many air combat flying slow is a very, very bad idea. And the real life is not 1v1. The “super maneuverability” is just a marketing term (BS) nothing else…
Canards is the same case. You can achieve good performance without this. It is just a possible “tool” from the many solutions. The Su-30 have two evolution branches. Only one has canards. The Su-35 also does not have it.