The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Japan Kicking Tires of the F-22
by James Dunnigan
March 11, 2006
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
While the U.S. Air Force has long
maintained that the F-22 would probably not be exported, because of the
large number of classified technologies, that is about to change. The
other, largely unspoken, reason for not exporting was the cost of the
F-22. Selling for about $200 million each, there are few countries that
afford this kind of stuff. Then there is Japan. Apparently there is
some interest here. With the second largest economy on the planet, and
the second largest defense budget, the Japanese are used to buying
expensive aircraft. The Japanese F-2, which is based on the F-16, and
uses a lot of licensed American technology, cost some $100 million per
aircraft. Since the F-2 was basically an upgraded F-16, a $200 million
F-22 looks pretty attractive. But that's only if the Japanese don't try
to build the F-22 themselves. The major reason why the F-2 was so
expensive was because the Japanese regard their defense budget as
something of a public works program, and a nice way to keep troubled
companies alive. The Japanese are not unique in this, but they take the
process to a new level. The United States will be reluctant to export
the manufacturing techniques that go into producing the F-22,
especially to a manufacturing competitor like Japan. But you never
know. Japan might be willing to buy Japanese made F-22s at a cost of
half a billion dollars each.
Then
again, maybe not. The Japanese are primarily concerned with defending
themselves against China or North Korea. Being an island nation, Japan
has put a lot of money into its air force and navy. The Japanese have
long believed in the superiority of quality forces, and the F-22 would
best anything the Chinese are likely to come up with for several
decades.
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