US to stop producing the F-22?

[Midnight Mike]

Tokyo: Japan is likely to drop its attempts to buy state-of-the-art US F-22 Raptor stealth fighter planes since it expects the United States to stop producing them, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Japanese government had been trying to persuade the United States to sell it F-22 Raptors to replace its own aging F-15 fleet, despite Washington's reluctance.

Tokyo, however, is now abandoning the plan amid signs that US President-elect Barack Obama's new administration may halt production of the aircraft, the Daily Yomiuri said, quoting government sources.

apan's possible alternatives are the Eurofighter Typhoon, jointly developed by NATO members Britain, Italy, Spain and Germany, said the English version of the Yomiuri Shimbun.

Among other candidates are the US fighter F-15FX and the F-35 Lightning II, produced by the United States, Britain and other countries, it reported.

http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish ... 016836.php (http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/airforce/Japan_likely_to_drop_plan_to_buy_F-22_fighters_report100016836.php)

[Matt Molnar]

Seems unlikely to me, but who knows. Everything has to be on the table at this point.

[cancidas]

i have a feeling that the F-22 will not be a huge production like the F-15 and F-16 lines were. and is Israel is having a hard time getting thier hands on the airplane you know Japan isn't going to have it any easier.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Wouldn't surprise me at all if production is scaled back even more.

Not a good time in the AF to want or even be a pilot - especially a fighter pilot.

There are rumors that the T38 track (those people in pilot training who will go on to fly fighters/bombers) will be closed down for 6 months. Recently, out of a class of about 25-30 people, only 2-3 people have been moving on to the T38 track.

On average, only about 1 in 6 T38 graduates is actually going straight to fighter. 1 to 2 in 6 are going to fly UAVs, 1 to 2 are flying PC-12s and 1 to 2 are flying some other variation of the RC/MC12. Oh and maybe there's a bomber in there somewhere....

And right now, the wait for the guy who's moving on to fly a fighter to start training for that aircraft is over 1 year after graduation... So you've got a backlog of recent pilot training graduates who are more or less on casual status at UPT bases, flying a 38 once a week to remain somewhat "current"...

Even guys who are currently a heavy or fighter dude are getting pulled out of the cockpit to go man UAV "joysticks" and PC/RC and MC-12s...

[BigAppleCoder]

Japan continues to push for the F-22:

"The Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD) has dismissed reports that it is prepared to drop plans to evaluate the F-22 Raptor fifth-generation air superiority fighter as part of its programme to procure next-generation (FX) fighters for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF)."

Continues here:

http://www.janes.com/news/defence/air/j ... _1_n.shtml (http://www.janes.com/news/defence/air/jdi/jdi090107_1_n.shtml)


I'm sure that LMT is also lobbying hard to open up the export market for the F-22 with Japan, Australia and the UK being the 3 most likely customers.

[cancidas]

... and the UK being the 3 most likely customers.
i honestly don't see the UK ever buying the F-22.