Review shows up Japan's aging air force
Source: Agencies |
October 17, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
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WARPLANES roared overhead yesterday as Japan held a once-every-three-years display to showcase one of the best air forces in Asia. The only problem - most of its fighters were grounded.
The air review came just a week after the country's entire F-15 fleet was ordered into its hangars for safety checks following a midair accident, the second such order in three months.
For the review, the F-15s - the workhorse of Japan's air defenses - were relegated to ground displays, either parked on the runway or allowed to taxi but not take off.
Last weekend, an empty fuel tank burst and detached from an F-15 on a training flight, causing the grounding order. In July, an F-15 flying out of Okinawa crashed into the ocean. The pilot is listed as missing and presumed dead.
The accidents reinforced what military planners already knew: Japan's aging air force has seen better days. But after years of delays and budget battles, Japan is expected to announce by the end of December a new fighter deal that will likely shape Asian air security for decades to come.
Japan - with 362 fighter jets, mostly F-15s, F-4s and F-2s - is already one of the top air powers in the region.
But planners have long been concerned by the increasing age and expense of maintaining the fleet - along with the country's ability to match the improving air capabilities of neighboring Russia and China. Japan has been using the F-15 as its centerpiece fighter since the early 1980s, though they have been updated over the years. Japan flies about 200 of the planes.
Tokyo's first choice was the United States' stealthy F-22 Raptor, which can cruise at supersonic speeds and is hailed by many aviation experts as the most advanced fighter in the skies. Japan is the only country where the F-22 is regularly deployed overseas, having done several rotations to the US Kadena Air Base on the southern island of Okinawa.
Acquiring the F-22 would have been a quantum leap for Japan.
Because of its sensitive technology, the US Congress has opposed selling the F-22 abroad. Budget restraints in the US have further forced Washington to drastically reduce its own orders for the pricey plane, whose future is now cloudy.
With the F-22 out of the picture, Japan has set its sights on three jets as its next mainstay fighter - the Lockheed F-35, Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Eurofighter Typhoon. The hotly contested deal for more than 40 "F-X," or next generation, planes is worth upwards of US$8 billion.
The air review came just a week after the country's entire F-15 fleet was ordered into its hangars for safety checks following a midair accident, the second such order in three months.
For the review, the F-15s - the workhorse of Japan's air defenses - were relegated to ground displays, either parked on the runway or allowed to taxi but not take off.
Last weekend, an empty fuel tank burst and detached from an F-15 on a training flight, causing the grounding order. In July, an F-15 flying out of Okinawa crashed into the ocean. The pilot is listed as missing and presumed dead.
The accidents reinforced what military planners already knew: Japan's aging air force has seen better days. But after years of delays and budget battles, Japan is expected to announce by the end of December a new fighter deal that will likely shape Asian air security for decades to come.
Japan - with 362 fighter jets, mostly F-15s, F-4s and F-2s - is already one of the top air powers in the region.
But planners have long been concerned by the increasing age and expense of maintaining the fleet - along with the country's ability to match the improving air capabilities of neighboring Russia and China. Japan has been using the F-15 as its centerpiece fighter since the early 1980s, though they have been updated over the years. Japan flies about 200 of the planes.
Tokyo's first choice was the United States' stealthy F-22 Raptor, which can cruise at supersonic speeds and is hailed by many aviation experts as the most advanced fighter in the skies. Japan is the only country where the F-22 is regularly deployed overseas, having done several rotations to the US Kadena Air Base on the southern island of Okinawa.
Acquiring the F-22 would have been a quantum leap for Japan.
Because of its sensitive technology, the US Congress has opposed selling the F-22 abroad. Budget restraints in the US have further forced Washington to drastically reduce its own orders for the pricey plane, whose future is now cloudy.
With the F-22 out of the picture, Japan has set its sights on three jets as its next mainstay fighter - the Lockheed F-35, Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Eurofighter Typhoon. The hotly contested deal for more than 40 "F-X," or next generation, planes is worth upwards of US$8 billion.
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