Japan unveils 1st domestic-made stealth plane

A very sleek and cool looking piece of hardware.

Where is it? I can't see it.

It seems something dissatisfactory in comparison with American, British, French planes. It rather looks like pleasure plane for holidays.

If we can see it, its not so stealty...

:)

Another fine example of defense hardware to add to the helicopter carrier and Ospreys that the newly formed marines can use in our defense.

Its just a tech demonstrator to showcase its (proclaimed) stealth tech without it being outfitted on an actual fighter airframe. They already showed this last year if I remember but its maiden flight was delayed due to software issues. Simply too small to be classified as a fighter since there is now way to fit ordnance inside the fuselage. Cant wait to see how it performs!

It's "only" a demonstrator; yet:

New technologies that the ATD-X will test include a second generation AESA radar, advanced "fly-by-fibre-optic" flight control system that can compensate for battle damage and control surface failures, an advanced ESM and ECM suite, thrust vectoring and locally developed high-thrust turbofan engines to name a few.

Neither copied nor stolen.

You keep on mocking it!

“I cannot go into details, but we recognize it is technologically at a very high level,”

Read, "“I cannot go into details because I'm a generalist like everyone else, but the entertainment and amakudari opportunities are top class.”

@Peeping_Tom, that's funny you say that "Neither copied nor stolen", just this morning the 18th Wing CG's first question during his stand up meeting was "did they get the stealth from us?" Thought that was funny!

It's called a hangar! (That place you stick airplanes in while you're not using them, (not the ground))

I don't like the shape in general, looks like it is "sniffing" something.

I don't like the shape in general, looks like it is "sniffing" something.

Planes are not designed for aesthetics, they're designed to do a job.

Gives a good idea for a nickname though - Hounddog.

A slightly antiquated look but if you can not see it when it counts... fair enough. We will see ;) ... At least Japan is not "borrowing" images of their fighter development from Top Gun.

Any coincidence in timing with the Zero taking to the skies again? Anyway, pretty impressive for a nation where having a military is banned by the constitution, as was selling arms until last year. Guess we can see where things are headed.

I can see it in the pic! I thought it was stealth! :P

pretty impressive for a nation where having a military is banned by the constitution, as was selling arms until last year. >>Guess we can see where things are headed.

Certainly, however, knowing how things are falsified with those big Jinc, nothing prove yet that for 40 billion yen, that plane 1) is not just a mock-up and 2) it is really stealth like advertised.

Smithinjapan, You did clock-in for work today, I was getting worried. Yep it's headed in one direction : piss off the boys in Zhongnanhai, the goons you kowtow to.

In the third supplementary photo in this item, I love the side-long glance by the guy at the near end towards the photographer who seems on his knees.

In happy Japanese red and white (and not 'stealth grey') the craft does look a bit like a trainer. But let them do what they want - it is not like we can stop them.

It is as "stealth" as an osprey. The good news is it won't fall out of the sky like an Osprey. Why does Japan need a stealth fighter when it can't do any offensive tactics outside of its air space?

Much cheaper to buy American superior technology.

They should name it the "My Zero Stealth"

an advanced ESM and ECM suite

And what does this jargon mean? Nice sofas?

Simply too small to be classified as a fighter since there is now way to fit ordnance inside the fuselage. yeah thinking the same thing, wont fit many misslies inside that, it may just be mostly for reconnaissance

To all jt "experts"

This plane's stealth capabilities were tested in France.

The French CONFIRMED IT'S VERY STEALTHY INDEED!!!

Try to get informed before dishing out your armchair expertise!

PLEASE!

@Peepin_Tom To all jt "experts"This plane's stealth capabilities were tested in France. The French CONFIRMED IT'S VERY STEALTHY INDEED!!!Try to get informed before dishing out your armchair expertise! PLEASE!

Just because the plane's stealth capabilities were tested in France doesn't mean it's VERY STEALTHY and your comment makes everyone arm chair expertise! Everyone has an opinion to me it looks like a T-38 one step away from being a hangar queen. I'm around stealth aircraft all day does that make me an armchair expert too or a bird watcher? Made in China would also say it's stealthy too ok right

PLEASE!

it does look like a T38 trainer ) The airframe looks too small to be capable of carrying any ordinance as well. Im guessing any "thrust vectoring" is done from the rear? "neither copied nor stolen" Umm thrust vectoring wasnt developed in Japan, it was developed for the Harrier decades ago by the British and perfected by the USMC

This is how your tax money get wasted , folks. Even Russia is better at this point. At least they have customers for their war technologies.

It looks like trainer because they appropriated the canopy from a Kawasaki T-4 trainer to squeeze the budget. They probably appropriated a lot of non essential part that is not involved for testing technology from other planes as well.

If it is so stealth, send it in the direction of NK and see if they can detect it and scrabble. If it is so stealth, Japan can simply deny its existence. There is remote control (drone) to fly it too. Where did the French test it? Against what country? France? Japan cannot get into the misinformation game and expect to be believed, especially when the constitution forbids offensive deployment. Also, if it can fool Japanese defenses, then all the yen spent on aerial defense, etc. is a waste of money. This story is totally unbelievable.

The 40 billion yen project began in 2009.

Yeah, I mean, when your country's economy is doing great and no social issues to speak of, and you got 40 billion to blow, this seems like a great way to spend your money...

It's quite good looking I must say, will be very interesting to see how it stacks up against some of the established stealth players

<http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/everything-we-know-about-the-x-2-the-future-of-japanes-1755710322 >

Guys, don't come to so many conclusions from just looking at a picture. This link has some pretty interesting information to help guide your opinions.

It does sort of seem pointless for Japan to be developing its own stealth fighter, I was under the impression the government had already committed to throwing away money the country doesn`t have on the F35.

Perhaps they changed their mind when they found out the F35 doesn`t come with a fax machine?

Where did the French test it? Against what country? France? "

Find out for yourself; it’s all available online!

"Just because the plane's stealth capabilities were tested in France doesn't mean it's VERY STEALTHY"

Well, France actually knows a thing or two about high technology. With all due respect to your even higher up know- how, of course!

"I'm around stealth aircraft all day”

I still would rather believe France's DGA defence agency's CELAR, thank you very much.

@crucial

The only thing I got from that is that they were denied the F35 (understandbly) so tried to make their own version and came up with this. And, so? yawn is my reaction, nothing new here, same copy / change we technique can see anywhere. Change something, "make it better" doesnt impress me; try what Lockheed did and come up with something original thats thinking outside the box like the Osprey or F35, then it will get my interest.

"Neither copied nor stolen"

Stealth technology was developed for the U.S. military in the '70s and is a combination of structural design and anti-reflective coatings. ALL stealth today are copies of this U.S. developed technology.

"ALL stealth today are copies of this U.S. developed technology."

Are all the cars copies of the first/original model????

They all share the same principles; therefore anything coming later is necessarily a copy! Enne?

Reimar Horten (German) built the first Horten Ho 229 with a smaller radar cross-section.

Believe it (or not) Americans did not invent everything!!!

You don't know what a copy is for IP purposes.

****I heard once that stealth technology actually ORIGINATED in Japan.

5petals

Nope it was the F-22 that the US congress denied sale to all nations., Japan is building the F-35A under license right now.

Stealth technology was developed for the U.S. military in the '70s and is a combination of structural design and anti-reflective coatings

Nope again since Japan developed it's own coating and is utilized on the Seto Ohashi to prevent ghost images on ship radars.

****The 1st stealth plane was the F117, one of which was shot down over Bosnia. It seems that when it rains they become visible.

"Nope it was the F-22 that the US congress denied sale to all nations., Japan is building the F-35A under license right now. "

Yes your right the F35 is being used by other nations the F22 is the stealth fighter, and Im sure its decades ahead of anything Japan has to offer. They let them have the F35 to copy and change Im sure. As far as Japan developing all things original, sorry I dont believe it, go check it out for yourself. I been told Japanese invented the microwave radar oven etc. but they didnt, actually the brits did in WW2 and latter was developed by the US for cooking. The Japanese just "patented" PWM (another technology that was previously developed) and used it for that application. Once again, any game changer technology rarely comes out of Japan. Sorry if that offends, but it is what it is. They have an uncanny ability to take off the shelf technology and apply it towards already exisiting technology, but thats not unique to Japan. Once I start seeing Ospreys, F22s, Iphones, or other originality, that will impress me.

dont be fooled. thats a toy model version that can carry a tiny pilot max 50kg and 1 tea pet bottle. the real version is top secret, and if any info escapes, there's an app for that, sorry, i mean theres a law for that and you get in jail for ever and ever. anyways, i hope it deters the "want it all" hegemonic china-gov, but it wont do shite to the grand crazy KN glorious leader.

War is just like a black hole for budget.

Peeping_Tom: It's "only" a demonstrator; yet: New technologies that the ATD-X will test include ... advanced "fly-by-fibre-optic" flight control system that can compensate for battle damage and control surface failures ... Neither copied nor stolen.

This is the first paper Google turned up for me, excerpted below, googling for "aircraft configurability survivability". This paper is from 1998 but the first papers I read on that topic would have been published earlier than 1992.

As for "fly-by-fibre-optic", with fiber you're just replacing copper serial buses with glass or plastic serial buses, the history of fly-by-wire technology (according to wikipedia) starts in the 30s and the milestones from the wiki read (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly-by-wire#History): Russia (1930s), Canada (1958), UK (early 60s), USA (1964), France (1969), Russia (1971), UK (1972), USA (1972).

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/(long link) ... = http://tinyurl.com/z8rppa4

A multiple model-based reconfigurable flight control system design

2 authors: Boskovic, J.D. ; Scientific Syst. Co. Inc., Woburn, MA, USA ; Mehra, R.K.

Published in: Decision and Control, 1998. Proceedings of the 37th IEEE Conference on (Volume:4 ) 16-18 Dec 1998

We consider a problem of designing a reconfigurable control strategy that achieves acceptable flight performance in the presence of wing battle damage for a tailless advanced fighter aircraft (TAFA). This is a complex practical problem since wing damage results in abrupt variation in the aircraft dynamics. Hence fast and accurate control reconfiguration is vital for assuring aircraft survivability. Our suggested reconfigurable controller is based on the concept of multiple models, switching, and tuning. ...

the stealth plane comes with radar-resistance features, including a canopy with special stealth-enhancing coating, and mobility.

Hmm "mobility" is a radar-resistant feature? I suppose... if the radar made a sweep only every half hour or so... but then you could claim hot air balloons were radar-resistant as well.

Tremedous achievement but stealth is not just about form... Shinshin is a great start but it is no way near the Americans without super advanced sensors, radars and source codes that makes it truly stealthy.

turbostat

My alluding to the fact that the plane was not copied/stolen stems from a legalistic viewpoint.

I'm talking about infringements of Copyright, Patents and Trademarks.

Many an industrial processes is/are/look similar; yet there are factors which determine whether we’re in the presence of an infringement warranting legal action; see recent Olympics Logo saga!

Moreover, the US did not invent stealth technology!!!

Stealth design must conform to a certain configuration; hence almost all planes claiming this feature will look similar. Similarity does not equate COPYING!

I know that lots of JT "experts" think of themselves as highly qualified in order to opine just about everything and anything.

However, I would humbly suggest that self-proclaimed "experts" learn what "copying" really means prior to letting lose nonsense.

Folks, the stealth fighter is parked IN FRONT of the red and white POS. Come on!

Very beautiful jet can't wait till we see it in the air.

Peeping_Tom

Well, I guess you're right, those papers are available online.

And it's not like China would sell Japan any of that tech they stole.

Still, all those tech features may be vaporware. They SAY they're going to do it, but have they done it? What use is it on a T-38?

Once again, any game changer technology rarely comes out of Japan. Sorry if that offends, but it is what it is. They have an uncanny ability to take off the shelf technology and apply it towards already exisiting technology, but thats not unique to Japan. Once I start seeing Ospreys, F22s, Iphones, or other originality, that will impress me.

F-2 was the first to adopt AESA radar and the first to adopt carbon composite material to the airframe. If I remember correctly the Zero fighter was the first utilize Countersunk or flush rivets to reduce drag. P-1 is the first to utilize fly by light system as well.

"What use is it on a T-38?

I sincerely HOPE you know this JUST a prototype and what prototypes are for!

Also, that the final version of the craft will be 3 times bigger than "your T-38"

Info is all online.

OK, that's fair.