It really still puzzles me why it seems so freaking hard to upgrade the Raptor.
Most of the reasons are:
1. Production has stopped and its hard to produce components for a plane that is no longer in production
2. The fleet is too small and its hard to approve the budget for such a small fleet.
3. Money spent for upgrading F-22s should be spent on the PCA rather.
Well Japan seems to contradict all those reasons:
https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia ... e-package/The approval will allow Japan to upgrade up to 98 of its F-15J interceptors to a “Japanese Super Interceptor (JSI) configuration,” which will see the addition of an advanced electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, new mission computers and electronic warfare equipment, as well as the integration of new munitions.
1. Japan's F-15J is largely one of the few export variants of the air to air only F-15C and all variants of the F-15 air to air only variants have long gone cold, but they still seem to be able to upgrade the birds,
Only the Mudhen variant retained production and to me the Mudhen is as far away from the Eagle as the Hornet is to the Rhino, Maybe even further, because the bug family has the same missions generally, the Mudhen and the Eagle on the other hand are primarily used for 2 opposite missions.
2. Japan has around 200 F-15Js a similar number to the USAF's 186 F-22's, furthermore they chose to upgrade just half of the fleet.
I seriously think its just political will stopping the F-22s from being upgraded.