US Lockheed Martin F-35 chosen as Japan fighter jet

[alp227]

Japan has chosen the US-made F-35 stealth fighter jet to replace its aging F-4s as the mainstay of its air defence fleet.

Tokyo announced it would buy a total of 42 of the Joint Strike Fighters from defence giant Lockheed Martin, in a deal worth some $8bn (£5bn).

The jet was chosen over the Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet.

The announcement comes amid regional uncertainty following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

full: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16259895

[TheWraith]

1. That's pretty much why they're building the F-35: for export.

The F-22 is too advanced for us to sell to anyone else, even "allies," so the F-35 is the dumbed down version. I just wish we weren't buying it ourselves.

[octothorpe]

2. What's wrong with the F35?

I always thought it was a similar situation to the purchasing of Virginia class submarines over Seawolf class.

[TheWraith]

4. Similar, but the problem is not nearly enough value to cost ratio.

The F-22, for being ghastly expensive, at least has the value of being cutting edge. The F-35 on the other hand is neither as effective at being stealthy as the B-2 or F-22, nor is it as cheap as our other radar-visible planes like F-15 and F-18 models. An F/A-18 literally costs about one third of what an F-35 costs, and a fifth of what an F-22 costs.

Moreover, stealth isn't quite as much of an advantage as it used to be. With the availability of cruise missiles, there's less and less reason to consider risking manned aircraft if you're striking an area with heavy air defenses. Using a Tomahawk that costs $1 million to strike a target makes more sense than risking a plane which costs even $50 million, let alone $150 million.

Even if you do sometimes need to send manned aircraft into a hostile air defense system, the B-2s and F-22s do that better. So to a great extent, it makes more sense to buy a few of the very high end planes like that, and fill out the rest of the complement with much cheaper designs. Between cruise missiles, B-2s, and F-22s, we would have ample ability to cripple an enemy air defense system enough to safely bring in the rest of the fleet. Thus, it doesn't make sense to spend $382 billion dollars on a lot of semi-stealth aircraft, when a smaller number of better aircraft will do the job just as well. Particularly when US Air Force operations against integrated air defense systems are likely to be few and far between.

[Sherman A1]

3. Agreed

I wish we were build something to export & use ourselves that would actually be of benefit to people as opposed to weapons which are simply designed to kill one another.

[unhappycamper]

5. Perhaps the Japaneese will be able to debug the quarter of a million dollar f-35. n/t

[Shoe Horn]

6. "...and business is good." [nt]