As a kid, a friends dad told us that Area-51 was not the UFO haven but full of Soviet military hardware that was being evaluated. He warned a lot of their stuff was prone to catastrophic failures.
That really makes a lot of sense! The level of security would be similar but the testing would be remote and away from the public. More importantly, the results could be kept away from the NY times.
Your friends dad was correct. - he still is.
Maybe the Su-27s would be fitted with a new glass cockpit replacing the traditional analog and maybe Pratt & Whitney F100s would power the Flankers, owing to the unavailability of Saturn-Lyulka AL-31Fs.
Then then can go for DACT against USAF Eagles and Vipers, even the Raptors.