yup, they give us Nintendo, Sony, Nissan, and Toyota, and we give then 40 F-22 Raptors. Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me

I thought Japan could only have a self defense force. I guess they will have to modify the weapon load to only have defensive measures, no long range stuff.
Either way, the super powers still have f-34's.

Not into weapons but 22 is a lower number than 34 so we
still win.
This is what we do best since the takeover.
Its probably better than some of the peacenick or other world
monitoring and suppression ideas as mostly there has been
a fairly easy progression to the present situation.

Originally posted by LeTan
I thought Japan could only have a self defense force.

Wasn't that a self imposed rule from the Japanese parliament though? there have been a few rumblings lately that the Japanese may start to develop a more offensive force since NK have started to fire more missiles in their direction.

rofl songun. Great points and video, thanks. I didn't know the raptor was so superior to the sukhoi designs.

Originally posted by Harlequin
2,251 USAF aircraft alone were lost , 31 B-52`s , 335 thunderchiefs , 243 super sabres , 445 phantom`s - the numbers are amazing when you think they were only fighting `pajama wearers`

Hmmm, the Vietcong did posses a pretty sophiticated air defence network for the time. Also its unlikely you would see huge cells of B-52's bombing from altitude trailing thier coats for easy pot shots from the air defence networks. While the Vietcong were wearing Pajamas they displayed a pretty shophiticated set of tactics and they had the best air defence network the Soviets could design for them.

ARM were in thier infancy
Jamming was in its infancy
The USAF lacked the first strike capacity afforded them by B-2's and F-22's that would allow them to target C3I targets.
The widespread use and trageting accuracy of cruise missiles did not exists (CALCM and Tomahawk)
PGM's did not appear until later in the war and almost everything today is a PGM (JASSM, SDB, GBU's etc)

you also mention `the turkey shoot` - how about the previous when the USAF fighters had there ass handed o them in a similar situatuin?

If you go back to what I was talking about; Raptors versus the NK airforce even with thier air defence network not diealed back, it would be no different than the Marianas Turkey Shoot.........

Are you suggesting that that NK's AF and air defence network is up to say Russian or Chinese standards

We are talking about North korea No?

The F-22 line is about to be shut down, and once it's down, the skilled technicians that enable the current production will be lost.

This is a measure to keep the production line open, although the Japanese F-22 will not be sporting all the bells and whistles of the American version.

It will be lacking core technologies.

But it will keep the production line open, keep the skilled technicians on the job, and overall drop the purchase price of our own F-22's as some of the startup costs can be recovered.

I like the idea, and would see that even Israel - our other strong ally gets a few dozen.

Simply because our Secretary of Defense, as with others in the current Administration, can only see as far as their next meal.

[edit on 4-7-2009 by dooper]

Originally posted by dooper
This is a measure to keep the production line open, although the Japanese F-22 will not be sporting all the bells and whistles of the American version.

Japan will be able to recreate most of what they wont be getting on the raptor anyway given the advanced state of thier electronics industry.

I like the idea, and would see that even Israel - our other strong ally gets a few dozen.

Isreal should NEVER get the raptor. Given thier propensity to sell our technology to the higest bidder, we might as well sell them to the Chinese directly and cut out the middle man

The LAVI is just one such example. The US funded Arrow no doubt has been sold off as well.