F-15J and F-2A fighters of the Japan Air Self Defense Force.
Popular Mechanics: Japan Is In the Market for 100 New Fighter Jets
The purchase will be Japan's biggest in decades.
Japan is set to issue a tender for up to 100 new fighter jets, a program the country hopes will help rejuvenate its aging air force. As reported by Reuters, the contract is expected to be worth at least 40 billion dollars.
The new fighter program, known as F-3, will be a homegrown Japanese design with considerable input from foreign defense contractors. American firms Lockheed Martin and Boeing are early favorites, as Japan considers interoperability with U.S. forces a vital part of its defense.
Japan currently has one of the largest, well-trained air forces in the world. The Air Self Defense Force, as it is known as, has nearly 200 F-15J air superiority fighters, the second largest number of F-15 Eagles outside the United States. It also has a smaller force of approximately 80 locally-produced F-2 fighters and 40 F-4EJ Phantoms.
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Update: Japan plans July fighter jet tender seen worth $40 billion as China tensions simmer (Reuters)
WNU Editor: This is just more evidence that an arms race is now underway in Asia. But even with this 100 jet fighter purchase, it will still lag behind what China is doing.
6 comments:
Of course this lags way behind what China is doing. There is no possible way for Japan to compete with what China is doing. Japan does not have the technical or economic capability to compete with China. Neither does America for that matter.
The best that Japan or any other country in the regiin can hope to do is to ensure that the inevitable Chinese victory is pyric enough that they don't consider the attack in the first place. This upgrade to the Japanese airforce seems to be a step in the right direction. If this is done in combination with a pursuit of policies that are non hostile to China, this may just be enough.
This upgrade to the Japanese airforce may even help us to militarily disengage from Japan which would be excellent for both countries. In this case, Japan's political leaders wouldn't be able to use the Americans as political props, a very good thing.
Keep improving your miltary capabilities Japan!! If we (Americans) are smart we could study this and perhaps learn.
another pessimistic american above. I disagree with nearly everything he just commented. Kind of makes me wonder if it's a pro-Chinese, south china sea claimant commenting on this blog. That being said, I think it would be a mistake to disengage with Japan, and I definitely do not think China is ahead of us technologically. Manpower is a different thing, though.
Anon. Name one weapons systems that China have made from scratch,.... they use Russian technology that is 20 year's behind.man power how do you use this on your advantage on a nuclear war ?
China will never attack Japan it'can go nuclear very fast and you can take that to the bank.
Do you really believe that Japan do not have H bombs on their arsenal?.
China does seem to have trouble building weapons and weapon systems from scratch. They are however very good at building on what others have done and making it better. They do seem to be becoming better at innovation.
With Russia as an ally they figure to have access to top of the line waepons and the appropiate personnel. This combined with their own improvements on innovation will likely ensure that China's current edge over America will not only continue but it will expand.
Japan definitely needs to go nuclear. I thought about this when composing my previous post but didn't include it. In fact, they needed to go nuclear yesterday. They can do it very fast. No time like the present to vet started!!
Even if they go nuclear, this will be insufficient for them to win a war against China with or without American assistance. China is simply to big and has a vast network of alliances that Japan cannot hope to match. The idea when confronting China is going to be to make their inevitable victory pyric enough that they don't consider the attsck in the first place.
If a robust nuclear weapons capability is combined with the current airforce uogrades along with a more conciliatory foreign policy toward China, this may be enough for Japan to achieve good outcomes.
A nuclear arned Japan should allow us to redeploy our forces away from Japan and shoukd help our alliance with them. This would be very good.
To point out such things is not "pessimism." It is about accepting reality as it is and not what we wish it to be. If America, it's leaders, our "allies", and their leaders do this, good outcomes are still possible. Ignoring reality is unlikely to end well.
"Do you really believe Japan do not havd H bombs on their arsenal?" I hope they do.
"Since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan has been a staunch upholder of antinuclear sentiments. Its postwar Constitution forbids the establishment of offensive military forces, and in 1967 it adopted the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, ruling out the production, possession, or introduction of nuclear weapons."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nuclear_weapon_program
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