Japan should be allowed to buy these.
F-22s to Japan
By Bill Gertz
April 20, 2007
Japan wants to purchase up to 100 of the Air Force’s ultramodern F-22 warplanes, and the subject is expected to be on the agenda of the meeting next week between President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Pro-China officials in the Bush administration are working against the sale of the advanced warplane, which has stealth characteristics and is expected to bring harsh criticism from China, which views Japan’s more internationalist military posture as a threat.
The F-22 sale to Japan is favored by conservatives who say Japan, the closest U.S. ally in Asia, needs the warplanes to counter threats from both North Korea, where missiles could be pre-emptively attacked before launch, and China, which is building up forces opposite Taiwan, where China has deployed about 900 missiles within range of the island.
“One hundred F-22s in hands of Japan could change the Taiwan balance of power for two decades,” said one official in favor of the estimated $30 billion sale. “The F-22 based in Okinawa could not only fight off [China’s People’s Liberation Army] air force but strike inside China; it is invisible to radar.”
An Air Force spokesman said sales of the jet to Japan would require changing a 1998 law that prohibits the Pentagon from selling any F-22s to a foreign government.
China scored a political victory last year when the Bush administration headed off a planned request by Taiwan to buy upgraded F-16 jets. As a result of production schedules, any future sales of F-16s will be delayed until 2011.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070419-114228-8449r_page2.htm
Agreed..
No way, the F-22 is stealth, we should not allow that technology to be sold to anyone, we would lose control and risk it being leaked or stolen....unless Hillary gets elected, then screw it, put it on e-bay so we can at least make some money off it before she gives it away.
Did not Japan sell advances sub propeller technology to the Chicoms? Chicoms subs used to be loud and slow, now with help from Japan they are quite and fast. I like Japan but we can't afford to let our best technology go to the Chicoms.
Japan really should want an F-15K with AESA radar. They have an F-15 line already, so it wouldn't be insurmountable to change over to building F-15E airframes.
However, since the Japanese have had the F-15 since the 1970s, they view the F-15K as "old technology."
If Japan is really worried about the missle threat they need to go nuclear. We’ll keep the F22’s for a while yet.
Japan do not need F22;
Japan must pay for their aggression during WWI & WWII & pacific war, killed thousands of US citizens, Koreans, Chinese, rest of asians and more ppl in pacific.
So it’s alright that Japan is payingup in UN.
There are many reasons why Japan should not be armed with US weapons.
1 - They hate US and rest of the world
2 - They are war loving nation
3 - They are cunning and not trustworthy
4 - They are deceptive
5 - They have agressive history - pure cold blooded killers!
6 - They murdered US citizens
7 - They starved POW to death
8 - They have no morality
9 - They are likely will start world war
10 - They like to rape young girls
11 - They have highest child molesters in the world
12 - They are narrow minded and senseless
13 - They are dirtiest race in the world