The Defense Ministry's plan to jointly develop a successor to the Air Self-Defense Force's F-2 fighter jet has been shaken, as the price presented by Lockheed Martin Corp. was far higher than the initial estimate.
The ministry has been exploring the possibility of jointly developing the successor model with other countries, with Japan taking the lead. Yet questions have been raised over the cost-effectiveness of this approach, in which the proposal from Lockheed had been favored.
Currently, the ASDF deploys about 90 F-2 fighters, which are expected to be retired from service from around 2030.
Given that it takes about 10 years to develop a fighter jet, the ministry hopes to include its concrete plan to develop the fighters in the next Medium Term Defense Program for fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2023, which will be compiled at the end of this year.
The ministry has studied three options, including Lockheed's plan to develop a new high-performance stealth jet based on the F-22 (see below) and equipped with electronic devices from the F-35.
The other two options have been presented by Boeing Co. and Britain's BAE Systems PLC. Boeing has proposed applying technologies from F-15 fighters -- the ASDF's mainstay fighters -- while BAE Systems proposed the use of technologies of Typhoon fighters, which are the mainstay of the British Royal Air Force.
These three proposals have been made on the premise of joint development with Japan.
Lockheed's proposal exceeds the other two in terms of stealth capabilities and flight performance. Since the information-gathering stage, therefore, the ministry has viewed it as the leading candidate to develop the successor to the F-2.
Lockheed, however, submitted its official proposal Friday with a price tag of more than 20 billion yen for the new fighter. This is far higher than the ministry's initial estimate of 15 billion yen, and far above the 13.1 billion yen price tag for the F-35 introduced by the ASDF.
"It's just too expensive. We can't accept this in its current form," a senior ministry official said.
Negative views
There are three options for the development of the successor to the F-2: domestic development, joint development with another country, and improvement of existing, foreign-made planes.
The Defense Ministry and Liberal Democratic Party members with strong ties to the ministry and the defense industry support the domestic development of the jets, so as to maintain the domestic defense-related industry's production and technology bases.
However, enormous budget spending would be required to do this. The cost of developing a new fighter jet domestically is estimated at about 1 trillion yen to 2 trillion yen. The entire project, including production and maintenance, is estimated to reach 6 trillion yen.
The Finance Ministry, which plays a key role in budget compilation, is negative about the development of new fighter jets regardless of whether they are developed solely by Japan or jointly with another nation. Its position is prompted by concerns about cost-effectiveness and the uncertainty linked to newly developed planes.
"The government just should purchase extra F-35 fighter jets," a Finance Ministry source said.
Japan-U.S. development eyed
To address the Finance Ministry's concerns, the Defense Ministry has explored the basic idea of joint development that would apply the technologies of Japanese firms to U.S. fighters with a strong performance record.
Even if the major hurdle of cost is cleared, problems remain with Lockheed's proposal.
As U.S. technologies are applied to key components such as fuselage, engine and electronic devices, joint development would likely be led by the United States. If Japan is not involved in the core parts of the development, repair and maintenance of the new jets would not be conducted domestically.
About 10 countries including Japan, the United States, Britain and Russia currently have technologies to develop fighter jets. Of these, only the United States, China and Russia are said to be able to develop stealth fighters.
"If Japan cannot develop F-2 successors led by domestic companies, we'll miss an opportunity to advance our technologies," a senior Defense Ministry official said. "And we could lose our position as a developer of fighter jets."
-- F-22 fighter jet
Often described as the world's most powerful fighter jet, the F-22 is praised for its high-level stealth capabilities, supersonic cruise capability, high maneuverability and air-to-air combat abilities. The F-22 is nicknamed the Raptor and was introduced to the U.S. Air Force in 2005. Lockheed Martin Corp. of the United States manufactured the fighter jets, but has now stopped production.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
