Opinion on Mitsubishi F-2?

nigger we have headsets now that let you see through the floor

not on the f-16j so..... sorry sweetie.

>How modern is this variant
They still use dials and gauges on em iirc. No glass cockpit or fancy electronics

Wasn't there a modernization program going on to outfit them with an all glass cockpit, amongst several other enhancements?

They have at least some AIM-120Cs, but I think they're for evaluation purposes rather than operational use.

>youtube.com/watch?v=k2Gt9DeKfZE

A quick read on wiki listed their upgrades as incremental, incomplete and only to a few airframes with no mention on avionics, so most of the F-15j fleet is still dials and gauges.

It's an old airframe, at this point the F-35 will probably replace em in function.

I like it. It's the closest we got to a maritime variant of the Viper. Plus the Japanese blue camo is sexy.

although it became different from what japan was planning at first (twin engine multirole), overall it's a good fighter, the first combat aircraft equipped with an AESA, and the fastener-less wing structure developed for this is now applied to the wings of boeing 787 mitsubishi manufactures. also, a more advanced full fastener-less method is to be used for the f-3, contributing to higher weight/cost reduction.
>And how's that Japanese stealth fighter program going?
judging from recent announcements from both ATLA and industry partners that have been doing preliminary R&D, it seems pretty well. the development is seen to be started in FY2021 officially as planned. as a matter of fact, the roadmap was already published as early as in 2010, and so far they are following it almost exactly.

actually, the airframe was totally redesigned by japan. the reason it became a "modified f-16" was 80's politics.

it's been working on a missile called JNAAM, a variant of meteor with a japanese seeker, with the uk, as they have a say in f-35's weapon development as a partner of the f-35 consortium unlike japan.

the jasdf operates some 200 of f-15js as of 2019.
essentially, nearly half the fleet hasn't been modernized and they are going to be replaced with f-35s and possibly f-3s.

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>actually, the airframe was totally redesigned by japan.
>totally designed
it looks the same, desu

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or "reengineered" would be a more fitting description. a large part of the structure was changed, not to mention indigenously designed avionics.

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It's a decent aircraft, especially for Japan's situation where they want to be able to shoot a lot of full size Anti-Ship missiles at once. It's more expensive than is reasonable for most nations, but Japan is a rich nation that sees the value not in unit price, but in retaining a national defense industry that's capable of designing and building fighter aircraft on their own if necessary. Japan is obsessed with retaining a domestic defense industry and thus self-sufficiency, and they pay a premium to maintain that.

>sees the value not in unit price, but in retaining a national defense industry that's capable of designing and building fighter aircraft on their own if necessary
So many people fail to see this in the procurement programs of a lot of smaller countries.

looks a lot more aesthetic without it though

Imagine.

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Most smaller countries can't afford it. There's literally only a handful of nations that really can and aren't the US, Russia, or China.

They did it because the front had to be reiforced to withstand bird strikes.

>How modern is this variant?
There are really two , the F-15J and the F-15J Kai. The baseline one is pretty much a stock F-15C, but without the benefit of AMRAAMs or any indigenous missiles, which leaves it stuck with Sparrows for BVR, and thus pretty hopeless today. The Kai has, among other additions, the indigenous AAM-4 missile, which, lack of any real use aside, looks like a very solid medium range missile on paper. With that addition, its a very good 4th gen fighter, a little long in the tooth, but not yet in danger of replacement on technical grounds.

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the original plan was like this

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Mig 29 fucked a Rafale

How many, and of what type ASMs can it carry?

4 of type-93 aka asm-2.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_93_Air-to-Ship_Missile

these boys were originally intended for carrying out asm saturation attacks against the soviet surface assets.

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Respectable.

Essentially Japanese fighter jets with slightly longer service duration to curb down Chinese bombers and frigates. Currently Tokyo never had expected the Chinese to be strong in conventional military around her neighbors.

the jasdf is finalizing the specifications and design. this process started this april, and takes two years (FY 2019 and 2020). an interesting part of japanese weapons development is that we can estimate progress of a program from invitations for bids they publish. in the case of the future fighter (f-3) program, many of those are for aircraft system integration these days and so, we can estimate that they are actually in the final process. this is also supported by the move of two major contractors, mitsubishi heavy industries (responsible for airframe) and ishikawajima-harima heavy industries (engine). in july, mitsubishi announced that they had finished acquisition of all the required technologies for the future fighter, after nearly 10 years of preliminary works, meaning they are ready. similarly, ishikawajima announced to stockholders that development of a new engine for the future fighter would start in 2021. they've already delivered the xf9-1 prototype engine (33,000+ lbf class), and this announcement meant development of the production model f9 engine (est. 44,000 lbf class). so they are clearly unofficially informed of the launch in FY2021.

the ATLA shows some of technical elements they've developed for the f-3 on their website, though it's in japanese.
mod.go.jp/atla/kousouken.html

>japan will be the only country to operate F-4s alongside F-35s

>operate
they retired them this year i think

Are they still looking to partner with a Western Aerospace company for the F-3 or is it fully indigenous now?

apparently they are gonna buy some components from american and british companies, but the possibility for the f-2 style joint development was basically denied in the mid-term defense program published in the late 2018.

Such a sexy camo

One unit replaced them with F-35s but the other units haven't got new planes to replace their F-4s with yet.

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they definitely have just about every other country beat out in terms of camo.

youtu.be/OK-k74kkyg0

F4s are gay

delet this

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>not aesthetic
>obsolete
>marginal combat record for an American plane.
Yea I’m thinkin they’re gay

Definitely.

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F-2 actually only exists because American lobbyism.
Japan was actually interested in buying Tornados for the anti-ship role, with interceptor being secondary.

Source?

He doesn’t have one. He’s just a tornado fanboy

books.google.com/books?id=lgScDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT50&ots=ufSfU7PqfG&dq=Tornado aircraft Japan interest&hl=de&pg=PT50&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Tornado aircraft Japan interest&f=false

>not aesthetic
You're gay. Gay for Stalin.

The Tornado would have been the "natural" choice. Unlike the F-16 and F-18 the Tornado was explicitely designed and used in a similiar anti-ship role as required for Japan's needs.

People like to overlook that 1/3 of all German Tornados were operated by the German Navy.

I'm not even sweating wtf