Possible F-22A Sales to Allies?

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I think it will be great to sell F-22A to Japan. They face perennial threat from their neighbour, China, and these fighters would come in handy if a major conflict erupts in the region between the powers. These fighters will shed off some of the responsibilties of USAF and USN forces deployed. And placing these advanced fighters at strategic locations will definitely not help any of those frequent sabre-rattling by China.

By marketing and selling F-22A aboard will be lowering the average cost of the stealth fighter. Of course these will only be in the hands of America's most trusted allies.

[edit on 20-2-2006 by NotheRaGe]

Already covered my friend:

Japan increasingly likely to be the first foreign nation buy F-22s


[edit on 20-2-2006 by kilcoo316]

Oh My Bad. Mod pls close and delete this. Sorry

NotheRaGe,

Hop in your way back machine, head back thirty five years into the past. Hop out next to the Bethpage facility and watch Grumman roll out the first Iranian Tomcat.

Same deal.

Same loss of technology base for little strategic gain (USAF Raptors in Alaska can reach Korea with only a little greater lag and are 'protected' by THAAD/NMD).

Same (Boeing) industrial motivation to make maximum profit from a system which Congress has clearly marked 'not for further purchase' by the USAF on the basis of justifying the pork project that is JSF. And the Blue Suiters rolling over for it in the hopes that someone will /change their mind/ on home production just as the Shah effectively portaged Grumman around a Niagara falls worth of Red Ink.

FWIW, Clinton made the same promise to Israel a few years back (Free Ex-FSD Airframes) and 'look how glad we are' that they didn't get a chance to pass the tech onto China.

Last but not least, there are 120-150 Eagles active in the JASDF.

Ignoring the silly-paint-scheme effect, do we really want the embarrassment of having them /want/ to replace all their existing force with a numeric equivalent to ours?

Japan is too dispersed to be adequately covered by much less and the 'bet ISR suite in the world' is _worthless_ (particularly in the blue-water mission set, if it's parent platform has to come home every 4-6 hours.

Of course the worst red faced moment would probably be when the Japanese 'took a look under the covers' and the resultant "You call /that/ Avionics!?" became the belly laugh heard 'round the world.


KPl.

[edit on 20-2-2006 by ch1466]

sales...
belly laugh...
then we buy upgrades from them!