July 1, 201411 yr ATD-X makes its first appearance as Tokyo's warplane plans advance A little bit more on Japan's home brew fighter. Timeline for IOC is a ways off but I am sure Japan could speed that up if things got even more tense in their neighborhood.
July 1, 201411 yr Why would they want this when they can buy the F-35? Oh..... You mean they DON'T want to bankrupt their nation buying an airplane that is less capable than ANY of the airplanes it is intended to replace.
July 1, 201411 yr Why would they want this when they can buy the F-35? Oh..... You mean they DON'T want to bankrupt their nation buying an airplane that is less capable than ANY of the airplanes it is intended to replace. Dude, Japan HAS selected and contracted to buy F-35s already. 42 of them (for now). As to being LESS capable than what is out there now? You're looking at the wrong things to measure it against.
July 2, 201411 yr Author Not surprised that they are moving ahead with their own project, but surprised they (Japan), Australia or Canada has not warmed up to the Advanced Super Hornet. Fair;y LO when you need it, 4.5+ gen and helluva lot less risk. Japan is developing the ATD-X only because there was no way they could get an export version of the Raptor, the Aussies were/are in the same boat, I would not be surprised if they approached by them for a joint program. Edited July 2, 201411 yr by Clark Griswold
May 12, 201510 yr Author Update. Japan's F-3 could fly this summer. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/watch-out-china-japan-readies-test-new-stealth-fighter-jet-12580
May 12, 201510 yr Says they're doing all that on a budget of $330mil. Sounds like pretty well-ran program if that's the case. I guess it's a lot easier when another country has already done most of the research though. I wonder if the production version will have DSI.
May 13, 201510 yr Shack. I imagine reverse engineering is only a fraction of the cost of real engineering... Edited May 13, 201510 yr by Kenny Powers
May 13, 201510 yr Author They may be doing this on the cheap, just not reporting the true development cost or just not developing all the LO / 5th Gen capes the 22 & 35 have. They have a track record of significantly improving existing designs, bringing them in on the Silent Eagle for a further extension of that idea might have paid dividends, but that ship has sailed. Concept proposed Japanese Stealth Eagle They are buying F-35s but really wanted F-22s. They have lifted their self-imposed ban on exporting weapons so this might turn into a competitor to the F-35 for sales, possibly India as they aren't happy with the T-50 and that would give China a problem to worry about. Edited May 13, 201510 yr by Clark Griswold
May 13, 201510 yr The final flyaway price of the F-2 wasn't anywhere near what they originally projected. Don't believe that their indigenous stealth F-3 will be cheap.
May 13, 201510 yr The final flyaway price of the F-2 wasn't anywhere near what they originally projected. Don't believe that their indigenous stealth F-3 will be cheap. This Japan building its own airplane from the ground up is just to far at the extreme of what their indigenous Aviation industry is capable of supporting. When your only building 80 planes for an Air Force and not 1800 like Lockheed the R&D costs just cannot be offset without massive foreign sales to pick up the program cost. Same reason the Challenger II tank is such a failure compared to the Leo II series. One is only Army the relatively small Army in one country, the other is outfitting half the countries in Europe. I will give the Japanese one thing though, production from the ground up may be way to much a pill to swallow but their modifications to programs we built that they produce under license are amazing. The UH-60 they have was 10-15 years ahead of what we were flying in the Army at the same time. Again though given the size of the fleet they have to outfit that's far easier to keep moving forward.
May 13, 201510 yr Author That is a damn sexy airplane. Yep - more porn: The final flyaway price of the F-2 wasn't anywhere near what they originally projected. Don't believe that their indigenous stealth F-3 will be cheap. No doubt but if they could find a partner like India or Taiwan they could probably bring the cost down some. India may drop about 25 billion on 5th Gen Russian T-50s, if they could snake that deal from Mother Russia that would bring some economy of scale needed. If you were building a 5th Gen fighter and you had to limit some capes to keep the cost in budget (novel concept) - what could you min run or delete altogether?
May 14, 201510 yr If you were building a 5th Gen fighter and you had to limit some capes to keep the cost in budget (novel concept) - what could you min run or delete altogether? Not including Lockheed would be a good start...
May 14, 201510 yr Yep - more porn: No doubt but if they could find a partner like India or Taiwan they could probably bring the cost down some. India may drop about 25 billion on 5th Gen Russian T-50s, if they could snake that deal from Mother Russia that would bring some economy of scale needed. If you were building a 5th Gen fighter and you had to limit some capes to keep the cost in budget (novel concept) - what could you min run or delete altogether? Man.... FA-50 looks creepily like a Viper, this has definite Eagle traits.... Are we really designing anything new or just letting a graphic designer play with it to fool us into buying the same planes at higher prices.
May 14, 201510 yr Author Man.... FA-50 looks creepily like a Viper, this has definite Eagle traits.... Are we really designing anything new or just letting a graphic designer play with it to fool us into buying the same planes at higher prices. Just vaporware from the internet but what could have been, highly evolved existing designs at about half the costs, acquisition & operation. Boeing may have it right with their "balanced survivability" design philosophy vice all LO design. Not doubting the capability of a true LO design but the money required just keeps you from buying all the other nice toys you need
May 15, 201510 yr Author Good article from Flight Global on Japanese stealth fighter; history, design and background. ANALYSIS: Japan's F-3 fighter pursuit is worth the wait
January 29, 20169 yr Author Rollout. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/01/28/japan-first-stealth-fighter-unveiled-x2-sdg-orig.cnn https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/everything-we-know-about-the-x-2-the-future-of-japanes-1755710322
January 30, 20169 yr On 5/14/2015 at 2:00 AM, Lawman said: Man.... FA-50 looks creepily like a Viper, this has definite Eagle traits.... Really? I was thinking more F-14 & F-15.
January 30, 20169 yr Man.... FA-50 looks creepily like a Viper, this has definite Eagle traits.... Really? I was thinking more F-14 & F-15. I was on the Philippine assistance team when they went with FA-50 we had a viper guy for the FW CAS position going over the dash 1. His comments were its so Lockheed/Viper that if he wasn't paying attention it would almost fool him.
January 30, 20169 yr 1 hour ago, Lawman said: I was on the Philippine assistance team when they went with FA-50 we had a viper guy for the FW CAS position going over the dash 1. His comments were its so Lockheed/Viper that if he wasn't paying attention it would almost fool him. Unregard, I confused the T-50 with the pictures Clark posted. To your comment I agree.
April 23, 20169 yr Author First flight https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/087f09e8-0837-11e6-b6d3-746f8e9cdd33.html#axzz46bZo6bia
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