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.
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!
Video’s just a wee bit biased, don’tcha think? ;)
“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.
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).
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.