Yahoo Finance Japan’s New Fighter Jet Will Have Wild Tech, Like Microwave Weapons
Japan has picked Lockheed Martin to help it develop its next-generation fighter.
The $48 billion effort will produce approximately 90 airplanes.
Japan's new fighter will have advanced technology that isn't even in the latest U.S. jets.
Japan will build its next-gen fighter jet with the help of defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The unnamed fighter will be designed primarily to shoot down enemy planes, but will also have the ability to strike ground targets.
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The jet will incorporate advanced technology not even seen in U.S. planes, including a virtual reality-style helmet and microwave weapon.
The fighter, according to Forbes, will be unveiled as a prototype in 2024, with the first flight in 2028 and full production commencing in 2031. Japan will spend $48 billion on the project, including development and production costs, to build approximately 90 airplanes.
The fighter, variously known as F-X or F-3, will replace the older F-2 fighter in Japanese service. The F-2, also developed with Lockheed Martin, is basically a larger, more expensive version of the American F-16 Fighting Falcon. Developed in the 1990s, the planes will be ripe for replacing in the 2030-40 period.
The F-X will be an air superiority fighter first and foremost; Japan has had a requirement for world-beating air-to-air combat jets since the end of World War II. The devastation and millions killed in 1944-45 by Allied bombers demonstrated to the country’s leadership very clearly what happens when a country loses air superiority over its own territory.
The sheer cost of modern fighters, however, means that no fighter-type warplane is purely air-to-air or air-to-ground, so F-X will have some ability to attack ground targets.
Forbes reports the F-X will include technology not seen on any current fighter jet, including “remote drone control capabilities, a VR-style helmet-mounted display, and a radar that can double as a microwave weapon to fry enemy missiles.”
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Although radar systems have long had the ability to damage electronics and kill or injure people and animals, nobody has really made a weapon out of it. The F-X’s microwave weapon will probably be a function of the nose-mounted radar system, allowing the pilot to continue to close with their opponent while still defeating incoming missiles.
The fighter will also have the ability to exchange data with other U.S. and Japanese forces, likely through the Link 16 secure data transfer system. It will also have a large internal weapons bay designed to carry six weapons. By comparison, the F-22 Raptor can carry about six missiles and bombs of varying sizes, and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter can carry four.
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