Japan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

i dont know whether the japanese have sufficient capability to design and manufacture a 5th gen fighter completely on their own and on a short time frame.assuming their prime defence contractors to be mitshubishi and kawasaki who have some prior experience with buliding the f-2.

it would be really nice to see some codevelopment with the united states since the us administration cannot directly transfer a f22 maybe they can help out with electronic systems and stealth borrowing some from the f-35 and applying it onto a japanese designed airframe.

the us would not want the japanese to be flying with a completely non-us fighter as it would complicate joint operation's with them due to non interoperability with their f-22 to be stationed in japan.

yongke said:

What about the new age J-10 and possibly J-XX? I think the japanese airforce is aiming at the next generation Chinese hardware, not current.

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Typhoon could deal with any probable threat, current and future. Of course people can imagine a future platform that would undeniably surpass it, but one has to be realistic about these things.

One important point is that the Eurofighter Consortium has reportedly demonstrated great flexibility in fulfilling Japan's needs. The ASDF wouldn't be getting an "off-the-line" production model, rather one specially customised to what they need - probably built in Japan. Additionally it could be upgraded in the future as new technology became available.

Japan still primarily wants the F-22 and may delay a decision on the replacement for the F-4J until 2009. However, it is highly unlikely it would put the decision off again. The recent suggestion over domestic research is in part a means of putting pressure on the US. Of course it's impossible to know whether anything will change - a significant issue that will work in Japan's favour is the cut in orders for the Raptor. If that is not reversed, pressure from industry may tip the balance.

why would Japan want such an advanced fighter such as the F-22. If Japan recieves the F-22, it would be a serious threat to its neighboring nations as now, Japan can possibly reverse engineer the F-22 and upgrade its fighters.

Unit88 said:

why would Japan want such an advanced fighter such as the F-22. If Japan recieves the F-22, it would be a serious threat to its neighboring nations as now, Japan can possibly reverse engineer the F-22 and upgrade its fighters.

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Guess who's next door:
North Korea
Russia
etc

All with questionable intentions.

In regards to the F-15 upgrades, apparently it involves the Raytheon APG-63(v)1 radar, but that's all I know at the moment.

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That's going to raise issues with AAM-3,4 and 5 plus ASM-1, 2 compatibilities. Trying to make the radar compatible with Japanese missiles is going to add an development and integration stage to the discussion and implementation, which is going to delay it even further.

If you do a straight off the shelf upgrade, and just use AMRAAMs and AIM-9X it would be quicker but you're going to junk indigenous programs that has a lot of government VIP backing, all of whom would not be happy. It would be faster to stick an indigenous radar set into the F-15s, providing of course, if you already developed one, and if not, this would mean an even longer development cycle than if you were to modify the APG-63V1 to the indigenous missiles.

Unit88 said:

why would Japan want such an advanced fighter such as the F-22. If Japan recieves the F-22, it would be a serious threat to its neighboring nations as now, Japan can possibly reverse engineer the F-22 and upgrade its fighters.

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I suspect one of the main reasons US is reluctant to release F-22 to Japan is that if they do , SK will also insist that they get some to balance out Japan's.

Schumacher said:

I suspect one of the main reasons US is reluctant to release F-22 to Japan is that if they do , SK will also insist that they get some to balance out Japan's.

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and then will lead to a bad chain reaction we should all knw where i am going with this but ill stop here

crobato said:

Trying to make the radar compatible with Japanese missiles is going to add an development and integration stage to the discussion and implementation, which is going to delay it even further.

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Maybe, but a number have already been upgraded - I doubt such work would be scheduled for a larger number of planes if unresolved problems had occurred with the first batch.

FuManChu said:

Maybe, but a number have already been upgraded - I doubt such work would be scheduled for a larger number of planes if unresolved problems had occurred with the first batch.

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Yeah but you're doing it on a modified version of APG-63, not APG-63V1. Don't let the appellations fool you. The V1 is a complete electronic overhaul of the radar, meaning while the antenna and all the mechanical parts are retained, everything electronic about it is completely changed. For all intents and purposes, APG-63V1 should be considered a new radar. You're not going to modify the APG-63V1 that quick, nor that easy, not without a discussion stage to allow you to do it first and obtain the information material, then followed by a development, testing and certification stage.

crobato said:

Yeah but you're doing it on a modified version of APG-63, not APG-63V1.

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Sorry did you have full details of the upgrade? I honestly was making a partial guess as to what they consisted of.

EDIT: Well, as I said, I was only guessing the upgrade used the V1 based on some reports that "talked around" the ASDF's upgrade. If at some point you can confirm what the planned upgrade involves I would appreciate if you could post the details here - I'll do the same if I come across more information.