F-22 sales to Japan

Recently, Richard Fisher of strategycenter has posted several new pieces. I found it interesting that he used one of my posts on SDF as one of his sources. Richard, if you are reading this, I can assure you that link I posted is accurate.

Anyhow, to the main point, I found "http://strategycenter.net/research/pubID.210/pub_detail.asp">his article on F-22 very interesting. He tried extremely hard in the piece to convince the Japanese public that Japan needs this order to defend itself against the evil Chinese. It’s a good thing that he didn’t bring North Korea into the equation here, because that would be entire laughable.

I will start off by saying that F-22 at the current time is by far the most advance fighter jet out there and that $290 million per F-22 is actually a very good price (even cheaper than what USAF paid if you factor in inflation + research cost). Even an export version of F-22 will be better than any other fighter jet in the market place. At the same time, Japan also has more than enough money to buy F-22s. It has basically delayed choosing between Eurocanards and F-35 for its next generation fighter jet in the hope that F-22 might become available. Much of the arguments that he makes (and other people make) revolve around the myth that F-35 cannot defend one’s airspace against what China and Russia will field in the future. I have to credit Fisher for at least not bringing the overhyped super flanker into this equation, because many F-22 supporters have also used that as their major argument. While I do not know how capable F-35 will be in the future, I know that it will be an extremely good fighter throughout its lifetime and not a stealthy bomb-truck as some would label it. Richard Fisher brought up the points that F-22 can fly faster, higher and can supercruise in the only places where he compared F-22 to F-35. I have also read others using the argument that F-22 has a much longer range than F-35. All of those factors are great, but they don’t really matter that much for the missions required by JASDF. JASDF and JMSDF are supposed to form a defensive force against outside threats. F-35’s range, operating altitudes and speed specs would satisfy any possible operating scenarios that JASDF may have. Fisher brought up the scenario of operating without electronic support aircraft and communication satellites. Other than an invasion against China, there are no other scenarios where JASDF have to worry about that? JASDF is protected by one of the strongest navies in the world, PLAN has a long way to go before it can win the battle against JMSDF and gain the C4ISR advantage of Japan in Japanese sea water. If PLAAF really becomes so strong that it has equivalent 5th generation fighter jets and is also operating in an environment where it has total dominance in surveillance and reconnaissance, it wouldn’t make a different whether JASDF sends over 12 F-22s or 24 F-35s.

And finally, there is also the question of why US would want to sell F-22s to Japan. It’s clear that F-35 can achieve any of the defensive needs that Japan may have in the next 30 years. While, there are noises that Japan wants to develop its own 5th generation fighter, it does not exactly have the best track record. If F-3 turns out like F-2, one could only imagine that JASDF will require importing many 5th generation fighters in the mode of F-35. It is really hard for me to imagine Japan not putting in a large order for F-35, so American military industrial complex will not lose any business from not selling F-22s. At the same time, Japan’s past record of guarding American secrets haven’t been perfect (Toshiba and Aegis), so does America really want to trust selling F-22s to Japan?