I never understood the "cobra" manuver the Soviet pilots were so proud of. Any aircraft with more thrust that weight can do the manuver.
The last time I saw the Blue Angels perform in OK city one of the pilots brought in his F18 with all surfaces extended. Landing gear down, speed brakes open, full flaps exposed, and the tailhook extended. He brought the plane in right at stall, must have been about 250 mph or less and skowly rotated it back until he was hovering about 200 feet above the runway. He balanced the plane on thrust alone. Rotated around on his tailfeathers to show everyone the top and bottom and then systematically raised the gear, closed the flaps, lowered the speed brakes, dilated the nozzles and went to full burn. He set the grass on fire and went straight into vertical ballistic flight until he was out of sight.
No doubt the Soviet pilots are good dogfighters and are also good at nap of the earth flight. These guys make do with less support than our pilots do as well, but the "cobra" manuver was just some candy for the press to latch onto. If you do a vertical stall in front of just about any decent fighter pilot you'll bleed off so much speed a missile cannot be avoided and you are a sitting duck. Especially with our fire-by-sight missile guidance systems. If the pilot can see the enemy, he can shoot the enemy and the plane does not have to be lined up to launch.
The really impressive stuff from the Soviet design bureau involve their directional vectored thrust systems on their latest Sukhoi fighters. Those things can turn around in less space than any other winged aircraft. There should be some videos online illustrating how these things can turn literally within their own length.
