Forum: F-22A Raptor

zeroyon, I speak Japanese but unfortunatly I cannot read or write very well. My ex GF was Japanese and taught me to speak in HS and I became fluent enough to translate for incoming exchange students and assist teach classes. However, she never taught me to write more than the Hiragana -_- (Hiragana is just 1 of THREE alphabets!)

With that said, I will answer your question. America is "RICE COUNTRY" because many years ago in Japan they used to use Rice as a form of currency. 1 Koku is the ammount of Rice it takes to feed 1 full grown man for 1 year. A Koku was a HUGE ammount of currency though and it would usually only be used to describe the salaries of court nobles and kingdoms. The smaller and more common, mon, ryo and bu would be every day cash. Even a Ryo was a lot though. (If memory serves me correctly, 2 Bu to a Ryo, and 4 Ryo to a Koku)

So now it should be obvious, America is the "Country of Rice" because we are a wealthy nation, hence, in Japanese currency, we had much rice.

-Aaron

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Do we really need the F-22? perhaps not. Is it nice to have. Damn skippy. So what if the F-22 needs to be modified for export. If there's any one country I trust the F-22 with, its the japanese. They have been more than trustworthy and faithful enough to justify it

what about the aussies, we have with the US through thick and thin!

Hey Des,
Amen to that. I never been to Australia. Almost had the chance once, but trip was cancelled due to Operation Provide Comfort. We were supposed to go there for a 30 day deployment, but the airlift we required was being used to provide food in Somalia. I lived in Japan for 2 years, was stationed at Misawa. Loved it and the people. Great time indeed. I think Australia would be a fine choice for the F-22. TC has the inside scoop on those things obviously since working at LM. Like i said, its just a shame to build such a fine AC as the F-22 and see so little come of it. Paying for 2 wars I'm sure has a lot to do with the procurement of the aircraft as well.

cywolf32 wrote:

Do we really need the F-22? perhaps not.

Very good point. Think about it, before the F-22, the USAF already had (one of) the most capable Air Force(s) in the world. Especially since our current enemies are countries like Iraq and Afghanistan with little or no AF. Even if Iran doesn't have much of an air force to pose a threat against us.

Meanwhile, like what TenguNoHi explained earlier, Japan (population=127,417,244) is locked in between China (population=1,306,313,812) and North Korea (with it's nuclear program). So of anything, Japan is in more need of the F-22 (and the JSF) than we are, as they would be the first target when/if China decides to go sour.

Some justify the F-22's purpose is for the future, saying that it will be one of our most valuable, and dangerous weapon in our inventory for future conflicts, like say, with NK or China (which is located on the opposite side of the planet). So then wouldn't it be a no-brainer to give Japan some of this state-of-the-art technology as they would be the first to deal with those countries?

Hi TenguNoHi,

In Japanese, Chinese characters are used not only as ideogram, but also as phonogram.
This Chinese character which has meaning of "rice" is used only to express the sound.
It has nothing to do with its meaning. BTW, Chinese use the character which means "beautiful"
to express the same sound.

The Japanese constitution prohibit any kind of "offensive" military operation and
Japan Air Self Defense force has no A to G attack capability in hostile territories.
That is why we definitely need "Air dominance" more than anything else.

I am very concerned about how far this "international variant" will be "watered down".

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In Japanese, Chinese characters are used not only as ideogram, but also as phonogram.
This Chinese character which has meaning of "rice" is used only to express the sound.
It has nothing to do with its meaning.

Completely contrary to what I was taught. Why were they looking for the of "rice" rather than just nipponizing our already given name. (They did that too but I mean? why have the second word for sound only?) The explination I was given made sense to me because when the US forced Japan open in the mid 19th century the US was the worlds leading manufacture of industrial materials like steel and oil. Not argueing with you, just saying.

-Aaron

I wonder what Japan would do with a wounded Raptor? One with reduced capabilities..... That is surely what they would receive?
As TC said, it may never happen. I don`t think our Aussie friends would want it either in a watered down version.
It just seems too much for the US to give away. Allies may get it when it becomes obsolete!

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Hey Des,
Amen to that. I never been to Australia. Almost had the chance once, but trip was cancelled due to Operation Provide Comfort.

Cywolf make sure you come down sometime, the summers are great and the beers are ice cold. Cheers

I had a chance to study in Gold Coast for free but past it up for ROTC. Now that Ive learned what Gold Coast is like im kicking myself in the nuts really really hard. All I can say is flying fighters and serving my country better be worthe it cause this "calling" I have is shooting down a lot of other ambitions I have in life. I think I am making the right choice though Smile

-Aaron

Tsk! Tsk!

Chrissakes guys, you make it sound like if Japan gets attacked, we'll just sit there holding our johnsons. Japan is not in danger while the "technology" loving world has a say in it. As for the Chinese...the UN highly frowns on two of its own taking the gloves off. The Chinese would have more to lose than gain for attacking Japan, and they know that if they try to flex their muscles against Japan, they'll have the U.S., the ROKs, the Aussies, and the Brits to deal with. They know better than to Foxtrot with Japan.

As for Japan not having bombing capabilities, we can sell them an aircraft geared solely toward air defense. We've done it in the past with the Rhino and the Eagle, and the F-35 is the jet we've already geared toward FMS.

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

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Chrissakes guys, you make it sound like if Japan gets attacked, we'll just sit there holding our johnsons. Japan is not in danger while the "technology" loving world has a say in it. As for the Chinese...the UN highly frowns on two of its own taking the gloves off. The Chinese would have more to lose than gain for attacking Japan, and they know that if they try to flex their muscles against Japan, they'll have the U.S., the ROKs, the Aussies, and the Brits to deal with. They know better than to Foxtrot with Japan.

Nope, its happened before, as with WW2 and the leage of nations. Circumstances werent exact but very similar. The more free and democratic the world is becoming the more idealistic wars are becoming and less concerned with the consequences the iniatiators are. The political motives behind them are becoming less material.

The difference between the Rhino, Eagle and JSF is that the Rhino and Eagle were all premier fighters at their time, just as the Raptor is now. You can gear a JSF for A-A but it still wouldnt be as capable as the Raptor.

This deal isn't new either. There are some old pics from a Japanese Air Show where LM was trying to push off the F-22 by putting models of it next to F-2 models. Those pics are floating around on this site somewhere; if someone wants to dig them up.

-Aaron

Two things. First, Japanese called America as "Me Ri Ken" then.
Second, USA was not leading manufacture of industrial materials in the middle
of 19th century. It was expanding but not leading yet until WWI

Well, maybe it is not appropriate to discuss this further here.

Japan is going to spend more than 10 billions on Missile-Defense .
Why does not JSDF equip cruising missiles to attack enemy
launching sites? It may be much cheaper.

Because the constitution prohibit such an attack on foreign territories.
Under Japan's "purely defensive policy", JASDF can not use F-35 as
"a first-day-of-war attack fighter". This is why F-35 is not enough.

Japan has 10 interceptor squadrons which equipped and trained just only
for Air to Air combat, 4 E-767s, 4 Aegis destroyers (2 more ships are under
constraction) and more than 100 P-3Cs. But it has no aircraft carriers, no
nuclear submarines, no LGBs, no FLIRs, no capability of low attitude flying
or night A to G attack, no SEAD equipments. It might be crazy but this is
the way Japan spend their money.

In the Stephen Coonts novel Fortunes of War, it was American F-22s than got the better of Japanese forces. If Japan were to get Raptors, I'll never look at that book the same way again...

ahwell, atleast it would look good in one of japans many special schemes.....

Kadena, Yokota, Misawa, Kunsan, and Osan are all in place for a particular reason: Power projection in the western-Pacific. If anybody attacks Japan or South Korea, they will attack the U.S. bases first. The specifics are classified but Japan and Korea don't have the military strength or luster to repel any sizeable attack so whomever would engage those countries will attack U.S. airbases to immobilize and negate the only realistic threat to them in the region. The point is that F-22s for Japan would not make sense as U.S. forces aren't going anywhere.

Forum: F-22A Raptor

Air Force plans to sell F-22As to allies