Posted on 11/24/2009 12:31:15 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Japan is considering buying around 40 F-35 fighter jets as the future mainstay of the nation's air force, it was reported Monday. Japan has officially been pacifist since World War II but has been gradually expanding the role of its military, in part due to concern over nuclear-armed North Korea and China's continued military growth.
The defence ministry will likely seek funds in the fiscal 2011 budget for the fighters, Kyodo said citing unnamed sources.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), being developed by the United States, Britain, Australia and other countries, is estimated to cost about nine billion yen (101 million dollars) each, Kyodo said.
Japan initially aimed to acquire the F-22 Raptor, which is built to evade radar detection at supersonic speeds, to replace its aging F-4EJ fighter fleet, but the United States has announced a plan to halt production of the jet.
Japan has been looking at six models of aircraft, including the Raptor, the F-35 and the Eurofighter -- designed by a European consortium
(Excerpt) Read more at spacewar.com ...
They would prefer the F-22, but that doesn’t look like it is in the cards.
The F-35 opens the doors in a strange way, though. Granted, this is not the VSTOL version, but a lot of the hardware is going to be the same... and it does raise the possibility that they might ask for the VSTOL sometime in the future.
They do have those two baby flattops now. That would give the JMSDF some serious force projection capability.
It boggles my mind why we won’t sell them Britain or Australia the F-22...
Like any aircraft could ever beat *this*.
He just bitch-slapped that overgrown gecko.
Awesome!!!!!
Seriously I read an article compared the JSF with the Vietnam era THUD. The THUD was used as a strike aircraft but it was a horrible dog fighter. Seems unfair to characterize the JSF as being a bad dog fighter but I am no expert.
STOVL
Good article. In case you wish to re-read it:
Thanks. Pretty scary we are going into the future with a small number of F-22’s.
Nah. We have plenty of these, which have the proven ability to shoot down F-22s:
Thus Spoke Carter: Notes from his Roundtable
Pentagon acquisition czar Ashton Carter shed some light today on some of the options he is considering for restructuring the $300 billion U.S.-led Joint Strike Fighter program.
A Joint Estimate Team (JET), made up of career cost and program evaluators at the Pentagon, has projected the Lockheed Martin JSF could be as much as $16 billion over budget and years late in meeting its in-service dates.
*Option 1 - Add more test aircraft to the program, which has 12 now planned, to burn test points in a "compressed" period of time to maintain schedule. Schedule is critical to keeping the international partners on board, but more flight test assets will cost more upfront.
*Option 2 (not to be considered an either/or, this could be combined with option 1) -- add more software teams to the program, including an additional shift. Carter describes this as essentially blocking and tackling with the software load.
Carter also noted the cost growth in the Pratt & Whitney engine is a problem item, but offered no specific actions to address it in the press roundtable.
These fixes all amount to more money up-front for the program. Carter signaled the Pentagon is willing to provide more upfront funding to shore up testing and stay on schedule.
However, he was not so subtle about saying Lockheed would be expected to share in the additional cost to the program. The Pentagon doesn't "want to be in a situation where the government bears the cost of schedule slips all by itself," Carter said. "It is reasonable that risk in a program be shared."
Carter met with Lockheed's CEO and CFO on Sunday, Nov. 22, on the issue and he said the meetings were "professional" and "productive."
While it seems the department is willing to take the leap of faith that more flying test aircraft will maintain the schedule (or at least diminish the amount of delay) and shore up the program in the long term, the Pentagon has less faith in the value of fudging a second JSF engine.
Financial justification for the second JSF engine calls for further spending on R&D and procurement that would later reap benefits by driving cost down through competition in the future. Carter says he has seen no analysis that indicates these savings are likely. He further adds that the investment in the GE/Rolls engine has been "disruptive to the Joint Strike Fighter program" because it has come out of the program's top-line.
Fiscal 2011 funding decisions -- including the possibility of adding more test aircraft and software engineers -- need to be made in the next "couple of weeks," Carter says, as the Pentagon closes out its major issues for the budget submission to Congress in early February.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.