Japan reportedly plans to buy at least 20 more US F-35A stealth fighters over the next six years than previously announced.
Some, if not all of the aircraft, may be bought directly from Lockheed Martin Corp. in the US as opposed to being assembled locally, according to three sources quoted by Reuters.
The Japanese government is acquiring the F-35A as an air superiority fighter to counter Chinese and North Korean warplanes. The purchase will supplement an earlier Japanese order for 42 F-35As, the majority of which are being put together at a “final assembly and check out” facility in Japan run by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the country’s biggest defense contractor.
“In view of budgets and production schedules a new acquisition of around 25 planes is appropriate,” said one of the sources with knowledge of the plan. Reuters said the sources asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media.
The sources said buying ready-made F-35As, at about US$100 million (11 billion yen) each, will save Tokyo about US$30 million per airframe.
The F-35A is the conventional takeoff and landing model of the single-seat multirole US fighter. Japan is also expected to buy the F-35B, the maritime vertical takeoff version of the plane for possible deployment at island bases, commercial airports and aboard helicopter “destroyers.”
Mikey Henstra
I am in Malaysia. I am Malaysian Chinese. Asia is where work and prosperity fired up by China is. It is the engine of the world. It gives us all work and wealth in ASEAN. That is why I am blogging against insidious American threat to our livelihood by its triggering a war mentality in Asia, when we just want to make money for our future generations.
But where are you? Still unemployed in the rundown economic sinkhole that is the United States where military and drugs and people shooting each other are its greatest industries.
Is that why you are so free to comment about Asian affairs.
If I were unemployed in Malaysia I would not care a **** about what happens in the U.S. it would be a waste of my precious time. I might as well sit under the coconut tree and enjoy the moonlight and the sea breeze and the peace and quiet.
You have a gun in Malaysia and you are not a soldier or a police man it is mandatory death sentence. I am not lying! That is called civilisation. So people who love bearing arms are bad uncivilised people.
Please do not come to Asia – as I said we are all dependent on the China money making machine. We make money here not war. Stay in the U.S, the whole fracking lot of you! And stop commenting on what is right for Asia. You think we are dumb monkeys or what! We can think for ourselves thank you! We do not need whiteman to tell us what to eat or drink or dress or tell us to go to war with each other! Go have a civil war again in the U.S. since you lot like playing with guns.
Oh! A thought just occurred to me! You hav Erin out of Red Indians to massacre. Now you want to massacre the brown people overseas! You are a sick bunch of people!
Try just making money like the Chinese, you know manufacture good sign to flood the world instead of flooding the world with arms and weaponry!
Starving ,killing its own people what kind of good is that?
Mr. Ti i have to teach u global politics i understand why u and ur country right now are bellicose, is it because ur country aiready attained status of a regional superpower not world status like d USA or u r just experiencing inferiority complex syndrome, l have to remind u what d British did to u and ur countryduring d opium wars in d past they force u to eat opuims then .
the success is not in the number but in quality
Chines be like: Copy and paste
Mr. Ti you see ur first name is a product of your fathers admiration of western civilisstion including d USA u r just a rebel without a cause hehe
It is important to note that one profile posting repeatedly in this thread has no personal pictures or content in their FB profile. Since VPN’s are banned in China, one can only assume that the person getting around this is one of the many paid bots working out of centers throughout China monitoring independent news services in the free world. The Chinese propaganda ministry pays 1 RMB for each post that challenges anything disparaging of the dictatorship in Beijing or the mythos of China Rising. They take a picture, submit on Wechat, QQ, or other Chinese messenger service and they receive a prompt reward. One poster here when you check the profile fits that bill as a disinformation agent.
Very well said!!!
Chinese are scum of the earth they can only make influences to the weak and poor countries which their govt are dumb and stupidity they raise from the babarain then China would have control.lol
Excellent article on this developing situation. With only 2 J–20 aircraft operational, the Chinese are still far behind any attempt to challenge Japan. This new purchase strengthens Japan’s position. The Chinese scientist convicted in the US a few months ago of stealling the design plans of the Raptor we now know only secured30 percent of the design. This e,plains why the Chinese are ha ing difficulty with the engines that are underpowered, the frame which is only stealth enabled from front only and is bigger. This latter characteristic points to a problem replicating the intricate components necessary to construct a competitive fighter. So, for now the two slightly work Chinese stealth fighters are bei.g kept out of puic eye in Gansu province, where it is believed the the rotting of the inferior frame coating can be delayed. I suspect that by the time the Chinese figure this out, the US and Japan will already have the next generation of all robotic stealth fighters to deter Chinese aggression, though eternal collapse from a myriad of social ills, income disparity and political oppression may well come before that time.
Mwo
The issue is not on how many of a fighter jets the Chinese could pulled out but on the durability and on how effectively they can play the multi tasking defense and attacking roles they are meant to conduct. The Japanese I believed know better.