Video Rearming Japan pretty good with 3 parts
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
A mechanic in Guam checked this F-2 after a live-bombing run, an unusual drill for the Japanese military.
Posted on 07/22/2007 8:51:50 PM PDT by neverdem
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam — To take part in its annual exercises with the United States Air Force here last month, Japan practiced dropping 500-pound live bombs on Farallon de Medinilla, a tiny island in the western Pacific’s turquoise waters more than 150 miles north of here.
The pilots described dropping a live bomb for the first time — shouting “shack!” to signal a direct hit — and seeing the fireball from aloft.
“The level of tension was just different,” said Capt. Tetsuya Nagata, 35, stepping down from his cockpit onto the sunbaked tarmac.
The exercise would have been unremarkable for almost any other military, but it was highly significant for Japan, a country still restrained by a Constitution that renounces war and allows forces only for its defense. Dropping live bombs on land had long been considered too offensive, so much so that Japan does not have a single live-bombing range.
Flying directly from Japan and practicing live-bombing runs on distant foreign soil would have been regarded as unacceptably provocative because the implicit message was clear: these fighter jets could perhaps fly to North Korea and take out some targets before returning home safely.
But from here in Micronesia to Iraq, Japan’s military has been rapidly crossing out items from its list of can’t-dos. The incremental changes, especially since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, amount to the most significant transformation in Japan’s military since World War II, one that has brought it ever closer operationally to America’s military while rattling nerves throughout northeast Asia.
In a little over half a decade, Japan’s military has carried out changes considered unthinkable a few years back. In the Indian Ocean, Japanese destroyers and refueling ships are helping American and other militaries fight in Afghanistan. In Iraq, Japanese planes are transporting...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Video Rearming Japan pretty good with 3 parts
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
A mechanic in Guam checked this F-2 after a live-bombing run, an unusual drill for the Japanese military.
Same story, different source:
Japan’s more provocative military makes neighbors nervous
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1870032/posts
Work started in 1980s under the FS-X program, and began in earnest with a memorandum of understanding between Japan and the United States. It would lead to a new fighter based on the General Dynamics (post 1993, Lockheed Martin) F-16 Fighting Falcon, and in particular the F-16 Agile Falcon proposal. Lockheed Martin and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries co-developed and co-produce the aircraft, the company is a major subcontractor to Mitsubishi, some of the early developmental work was actually under General Dynamics, who sold its aircraft division to LM in 1993. It is essentially an execution of the F-16 Agile Falcon proposal- a late 1980s plan for an enlarged F-16 which was passed over in the U.S. in favor of an all-new fighter program (Joint Strike Fighter). The F-2 used the wing design of the F-16 Agile Falcon, but much of the electronics were further updated to 1990s standards. The overall concept of the enlarged F-16 by General Dynamics was intended as a cheap counter to the then emerging threat of Su-27/MiG-29.
more info at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_F-2
If we don’t make them the closest possible ally, then others will!
Thanks for the link. I’m not that surprised with the different title at the IHT, a Times subsidiary. What’s really annoying is when the Times generates new titles for the same story as the day progresses.
Thanks for the info & link.
Democrats' rare chance to go for gut This author is delusional. Try to finish it.
From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
China will not like this at all, good, I would not mind Japan becomming a counter balance to China, and standing at least some watch on North Korea.
Video’s just a wee bit biased, don’tcha think? ;)
Thanks for the ping!
“Don’t wake a sleeping giant plus 66 years” ping. Thanks NeverDem.
Screw the Japanese military, as they helped get my father to be resting in Arlington National Cemetery, versus with me today. RIP Dad. He was injured at Iwo Jima. Bless his heart and great leadership, as I was a kid, trying to figure out how to get on with my life. He did it for my family, very well indeed.
Sorry to hear about your dad. Does it make you feel better to know that we killed more of them than they killed of us? I’m a military brat too. War sucks even when there’s no fighting going on.
Video games are more fun.
In the inter-World-War years, Japan controlled Micronesia (taken from Germany, and then ceded to the United States as a trust territory after the second World War).
The World War is over. The Japanese dictatorship is gone and now a democracy. They paid the price. We are now fighting a new Cold War against China, with possibilities of China selling Iran IED related equipments and weapons to Iran, likely reaching terrorists in Iraq killing American troops today. Our enemies yesterday is not always an enemy today, nor our friends yesterday is not always a friend today.
They need to be able to protect themsevles, with NK and China just around the corner. The Japan of today is way different than the Japan of yesteryear.
Wiz,
Right you are! Thanks.
The Japan of today is one of the most stable, sane, trustworthy nations on earth: And we share the same enemies.
I will sleep a little easier when Japan has a navy, air force, and army in proportion to her population and economic power. It won’t bother me a bit when they deploy a nuclear deterrent either.
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