The Air Self-Defense Force’s F-35A fighter jet is shown at Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture in February. Pool photo/The Yomiuri Shimbun
Business Insider: Japan is loading up on F-35s for an aircraft carrier meant to check China
* Japan plans to purchase 147 F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters, Keitaro Ohno, parliamentary vice minister of defense for Japan's ruling party, revealed Wednesday.
* 107 F-35As will replace an aging fleet of F-4 and F-15 fighters, and 40 B variants are expected to serve aboard refitted Izumo-class destroyers.
* The focus, according to Ohno, is responding to China in the Pacific.
Japan is apparently considering tripling its original F-35 order "to respond to China in the Pacific," a senior defense official in the Japanese parliament revealed Wednesday.
Japan plans to purchase as many as 147 F-35s to replace Japan's aging fleet of F-4 and F-15 fighters, as well as significantly enhance the combat capabilities of Japan's maritime forces, Keitaro Ohno, parliamentary vice minister of defense for Japan's ruling party, explained Wednesday, confirming rumors that have been circulating for weeks.
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WNU Editor: This is a major purchase.
More News On Japan's Decision To Purchase 150 F-35s
Japan’s potential buy of 100 more F-35s would have big international significance -- Defense News
Japan moves forward on F-35 buy, aircraft carrier transformation -- Military Times
Upgrade Would Arm Japan With First Aircraft Carriers Since World War II -- The New York Times
Japan plans to purchase nearly 150 F-35 fighter jets from the US -- VOX
Japan Triples Its F-35 Order: Stealth fighters to replace 99 F-15s -- War Is Boring
The Best Defense? Japan’s Controversial F-35 Carrier Upgrade Confirmed -- Sputnik
Japan Is Dumping the F-4 Phantom for the F-35 (And It’s a Big Deal) -- Michael Peck, National Interest
7 comments:
Japan has not joined the chorus of Trump hate coming from Germany, Britain and other EU members. Even though Trump has challenged Japanese trade practices, Japan has acted quite adult like. Work the problems, find solutions to common problems. Now the US knows it has a major Asian partner in Japan.
While I am what one traditionally considers as a detractor of the F-35. It does give Japan the capability to tasks that is was previously unable to do. Namely, "high-end" air superiority and force projection.
Anon 5:18PM.
China is now faced with having a large number of stealth bombers along a 1000 mile front. The Japanese aren't stupid, they know more details about its high end capabilities and its force projection than you do. Obviously they like what it offers. Whats left out of the story is the missiles Japan will buy for these jets. JASSM-ER, LRSAM or NSM offer stealthy profiles and very long ranges to go deep into China from either F-35 variant.
China has since mid 2000's faced an increasing number of countries. It's not the US vs China, it has always been China vs everyone else. This is what makes the US position strong.
Agree. I've dealt with a few Japanese in my life. Smart, educated, hard working. With 150 F-35s - just showing the Power of alliances - China must realise it cannot win in any conflict against the alliance. Keep in mind, if either US or Japan get attacked by China, the other one would almost most certainly help each other. On top, if the US get attacked, all of NATO is at war with China. And again, Japan would likely join and a few other countries loosely attached to Nato. So yeah. ..and with markets next year predicted to further go down in China, and now they're even thinking about changing their famous 'China 2025' grand project name at which point China planned to overtake the US as super power or at least economically. This is huge, guys. That CNN is constantly bashing Trump - the guy you can most credit for this-shows me that they're no longer acting in the interest of the United States. They've gone beyond suspicious. All this hatred on their network. .Don Lemon trying to label all white people-an entire race -as the problem. Changing your perception of what's OK to say and think. Mobs are not mobs. Remember that? And even trying to change the core of the justice system: presumption of innocence and due process. All these msnbc and CNN anchors cannot be that dumb, that uneducated, that disregarding of what they do. Their narratives are always synchronised. Sure it could be that they just discuss the talking points of the day and then yada on ..but I think this meeting is directed (typically by phone in) from the second in command at CNN. That's how it normally is. And he likely just coordinates with Zucker and Zucker probably coordinates with the head of msnbc a few times in as month and from time to time with Bezos (Wapo). All these guys are deeply connected to the Democrat party, and all the CEOs are currently even openly now mulling to run for 2020 presidency as Democrat. Holy f..and all of them kiss up to China. Just look at the ads on cnn homepage. So many pro China. It's big money for CNN. So many pro China stories. But almost no reporting on their aggressions, their concentration camps. And what about CNN Turk? And cnn's connection to Turkey? How much they pushed what Erdogan and Putin wanted in the aftermath of the Khashogi murder? He was dead. That >100bn contract - so they suggested - should be cancelled. The only two countries on earth that can fill such an order in place of the US is Russia (who is now #2 arms seller) and China. So in all likelihood Russia. How come cnn always call Putin a 5D chess player and never highlight the times Trump has won? Who is really colluding with who? My money is on that it's foreign money which has flown for years -as we all know- and is now not only lobbying in Washington-but deep in the media. And we know this. All of it. It's just harder to believe that Anderson Cooper and fon Lemon are that dumb..but they are. .because they only listen to themselves. They're in their own bubble now..talking to Rachel Maddows etc. .while their own bosses get passed down the orders by Zucker etc
Agreed. No one wants to live under Chinese rule. I've lived many years in Asia. China is hated nowhere more than in Asia. That's what many people forget. They're almost at constant war to the east (India), the south (Vietnam, which they just 2 years ago threatened with war over an oil platform)..then of course Japan is not a friend. They're just in the south/west. ..China never seems to learn. The only people I can think of over the last decades who have always uptalked Chinese are lefties. Remember when they said we should all learn Chinese? What a dumb idea that was. Much smarter to learn math and develop the translation algs that will be a multi billion market soon. But also bad culturally to keep boundaries between the free and soon enslaved world. ..just look at all the signs. .China is raising not just the strongest Internet Firewall to Block more and more Info coming in but they also lock down on free speech and dissent - the social scoring system. And who would suggest such a scoring system as well and has an outrage machine to tap into to force you into submission? Why CNN MSNBC and the Democrat party. The similarities between lefties and Chinese government operators are eery sometimes
Great to see Japan is increasing their military capabilities. They will definitely need this.
As to Japanese opinion of Trump. It's a little harder to gauge since the big news organizations such as NHK is not as free to report the news as in the U.S. PM Abe is definitely trying to keep a good relationship with the U.S., so he won't risk letting Trump think of Japan as he does with Germany or France. Speaking to my family back in Japan and my wife, there are a lot of Japanese people who are still wary about Trump, but you won't see much negativity openly expressed in the news as in the Western world.
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