I think F-35 or F/A-18E/F would be on okay choice. With Japan’s military being focused on defensive missions you won’t need the huge range

Yeah right, take a good look at a detailed Japanese map, they have islands that extend far far into the pacific. The range from Hokkaido down to territories in the Ryukyu chains is also very big.

I don’t think it would be a financial problem for Japan to buy and fly the F-22. They are still under that 1% cap and that is about USD50 Billion.

even with that 1% spending, its spending far far surpasses certain countries who attempt to buy large aircraft such as the Flanker and F-15 😉

you bastids got it all wrong,

What will Japan get? simple, they will buy the design of the X-32 from Boeing and produce it as their own :diablo:

by buying this design, it saves them the time to the R&D for a totally indigenous 5th generation aircraft, while keeping some industry at home as they are building it themselves.

To be blunt, they need a stealthy striker and maritime strike aircraft capable of dealing with possible intruding warships from nations who have a history of intruding into sovereign Japanese waters (or at least what they claim is theirs). Although on paper, their F-15’s are “equal” to the latest flankers, the Japanese have had their F-15 for decades and are far more competant on using them than other nations in Asia which barely got theirs and are still developing modern air warfare tactics.

like wise, it’d be nice if they also bought the design for the YF-23

now, suppose that the indian air force has its way and gets the Bars-29 for their Mig-29’s, how much are they gonna pay?, for example, i’ve heard by rumours that the APG-73 and the RDY are at about 7 millions (us dollars) each 😮
i just hope the Bars wont be that expensive, again…any ideas?

Camaro

you may be surprised to hear that avionics can cost up to 50% of the total aircraft price 😮

Neo-con is frequently used as a curse in the U.S. by those who oppose the current administration: the DNC, socialists, communists, liberal elitists, leftist anti-war groups, etc. A few years ago you seldom heard the term, now its heard daily. I wonder about what people mean when they use it I think you would be hard pressed to come up with a definition of the term that would not be disputed by many others.

oh Saruman, curse words are used by both sides.. Neo-cons, liberals being used as a cursed which is why they’re trying to say they’re “progressive”, and blah blah. what can we say about a bi-polar system, unfortunately it is a problem of the minds of the mass populace who do have the ability to vote Libertarian, Reform, etc.

Yeah but you can’t deny that since the seventees US politics has taken a shift to the right! Probably because the Left in the US are not able to organise them in the same way the Right does (think tanks etc). But Left and Right are indeed just temporary, however the neo-conservatives seem to be against liberalism in general. I put liberalism as a fundament of the American Society, opposed to Left vs Right which is just a temporary form of gov’t.

in my opinion, American politics is farked in the ass because of it’s bipolarity. often sensible moderates and the vast ignorant populace are often siding either with socialist leaning sissies who don’t realize that situations in Europe and the US are different, or with low IQ cowboy actors who want to make war with everyone and have no sense of long term financing.

or to put things in a better perspective, you got many Libertarians who vote Republican because they like the free market attitude of Republicans, but do not care for the catering of religious folk, especially in regards to controversial issues such as gay marriage and stem cell. while on the other hand, you have those who are religious and like the stronger government role in social issues, but don’t care for the demcratic stance over gay marriage, etc.. this among some.

Interesting idea – I wonder if the FC-1 can be made NATO compatible.

throw in a Grifo radar and you’re closer to it. Although to be in all seriousness, do you REALLY want to join NATO? :dev2: