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Japan to test first stealth fighter jet

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Let me guess. This will be seen as a kind of act of aggression towards one of its neighboring nations.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

"About 39.2 billion yen has been invested in the project"

How much is this going to cost over the next 10 years?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@Burning Bush alol. See we can disagree without being diagreeable.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Let me guess. This will be seen as a kind of act of aggression towards one of its neighboring nations.

Well said!! lol

1 ( +2 / -1 )

flexing muscles..

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If Japan has technology of stealth, it should develop and build up its own fighter jets. Do not depend on other country makers. They will sell them with incredible price to other countries. It seems very much that Japan can do it as much as other unique technologies.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Have they tested this magic against VHF tracking systems? The answer may calm corporate euphoria about this system.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Jerome_from_Utah

They tested it in France no thank to the US which denied access to their testing site.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Instead of helping Boeing, Mitsubishi will concentrate in Japanese airplane manufacturing? This is not first time Mitsubishi going to own airplane business It had Mitsubishi zero that scared USA years ago.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Mitsubishi produced the F15-J, the current king of the JASDF, which is based on the US F15 Eagle, so I have high hopes that they will succeed in making spectacular home grown F35s as well. These stealth jets will likely play a crucial role in protecting Japan's sovereign territory and intercepting any potentially hostile intruders to Japan's ADIZ. I look forwards to hearing how the test flight plays out.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

SamuraiBlueAug. 13, 2014 - 09:14AM JST They tested it in France no thank to the US which denied access to their testing site.

Which brings us to the recent state secrecy laws introduced in Japan.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This will be seen as a kind of act of aggression towards one of its neighboring nations.

Oh? Is the development of the J-20 in China being greeted with enthusiasm by China's neighbors?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

They are talking about the ATD-X right? How come JT is posting F-35 pictures and references when the Internet is teeming with info on the ATD-X?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

State secrecy laws has nothing to do with the US dening utilization of a radar dark room. It just plain fear of Japan developing a successful indigenious fifth generation fighter by Japan which may hamper sales of US made fighter planes.

The US had been interfering Japan from returning back into the aero industry after the war in various ways.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I think the topic is referring to the ATD-X not the F-35 since the ATD-X was gonna have a test flight this 2014 and its from the Mitsubishi Industries.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

ATD-X is supossed to be better than the F35. The ATD-X project started when USA congress blocked the sale of the F22.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

This will further boost the morale of SDF, Blue Impulse in particular.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Will they call it a Valkyrie, or Yukikaze?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Will they call it a Valkyrie, or Yukikaze?

If an F-3 fighter comes out of this it'll probably be called the Silent Zero or Stealth Zero. Possibly even Shadow Zero just like how the F-1 was called Supersonic Zero and the F-2 was called Viper Zero after the F-16's nickname Viper.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

SamuraiBlueAug. 13, 2014 - 01:38PM JST State secrecy laws has nothing to do with the US dening utilization of a radar dark room. It just plain fear of Japan >developing a successful indigenious fifth generation fighter by Japan which may hamper sales of US made fighter >planes. The US had been interfering Japan from returning back into the aero industry after the war in various ways.

I seriously doubt your one sided view on the matter. Military areo industry is not like the car industry.That the exports of a successful Japanese 5th gen fighter would be competition for US manufacturers is obvious. But military sales, especially first line weapons like fighters are not all based entirely on product. There is considerable political and diplomatic influence, and issues such as compatibility. Japan has neither the ability nor do I believe the desire to become a global weapons seller. US manufacturers have the advantage of alliances, most of which are lead by the United States itself. For example what country would buy a Japanese Fighter no matter how good, if the only countries using it would be itself and Japan? Japan itself buys US planes (built in Japan under license) because of compatibility with the US and other US allies. Even with this ATD-X, Japan has made it clear that if all goes well the F-3 will be added to augment the F-35 fleet. The U.S. has supported Japan's changes in defense and it's defense industry because far more can be gained from it in terms of the US-JP alliance as well as other US allies, than any "negative" factors like product competition. I also have to disagree with your discounting the recent Japanese State Secrecy Laws, as they are an integral part of Japan's current military and military industrial changes. It's no coincidence that all of these things have happened close to each other time-wise. The US has been burned by poor security with a number of issues in the past including the Aegis systems. The changes that are happening now required Japan to raise their level of security to ours. And we do take out technology and security seriously as you are aware.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

OssanAmerica

Don't patronize, fact is GHQ/US restricted all research on airplanes for 10 years and was not lifted till1957. At that time the jet age had come and the industry had been completely dismantled.

Down the road US further hampered with Japan's effort to revive the industry by placing huge political pressure on the F-2 development project making it into a joint project. This project was a laugh since although US provided the design of the F-16 but did not provide the core software in manuvering the plane so Japan had to develop that from scratch. US also pressured Japan to develop the AESA on-board radar and develop carbon fiber fabrication technique to be utilized on airplanes. These new technology was taken from Japan free of charge and Japan ended with a very costly fighter that was already at it's limit in fighter design.

This really left a bad taste in the mouthes of the fledgeling industry cursing "No More". The Japanese defense industry had since developed not needing to depend on the US for weapons technology developing various indigenous weapons without the help of the US. Now the table had turned and the US is wanting Japan's proprietorial technology to enhance her own so Japan went into offensive and declared that the doors are open to all nations. That is why Japan is sealing contracts with the French, British and Australian corporations.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

A major problem with a stealth weapon is that it looks a hell of lot more like a first strike offensive weapon than a retaliatory defensive one.

If people start saying that Japan has a military instead of a self defense force, they have been handed some pretty effective ammunition.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

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