politics

Raytheon lobbying Japanese lawmakers to replace Lockheed Martin as radar supplier

29 Comments
By Tim Kelly and Yoshifumi Takemoto

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29 Comments
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The US military industrial complex remains under Trump. And is needed more than ever to support his failing economy.

Trump appointed Mark Esper to be his Secretary of Defense after Esper had worked for Raytheon.

What do you call a political-economic system where the government and 'private' industries are so closely linked?

12 ( +16 / -4 )

What do you call a political-economic system where the government and 'private' industries are so closely linked?

It's called "business as usual"

20 ( +20 / -0 )

The decision process and the intellect of those making the decisions are both bound in mud and corruption.

led by former defense minister Itsunori Onodera, Who was also the leader of the now (maybe) cancelled two land based systems neither of which were placed to protect any densely populated areas? He admitted he had never visited the sites and had jabbed his finger at a map. It's useless to get experts involed as its not about defence it's about filling the pockets of current and former politicians. Having a educationed opinion will only hamper cause frustration,anger and a a disbanding of any expert group who stands between cash and political pockets.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

Eisenhower warned us about the MIC. I am glad that people are at least catching on and not calling this "crackpot theory" anymore. It IS a conspiracy BTW.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

No Thank You,

U.S. War Mongers working hard spreading FEAR and ANXIETY all the way to Japan.

Trump and his war mongers are hard at work trying to revive a failing economy under his Failed & Fkd. Up policies and mismanagement.

Lockheed system has proven to be effective 90% of the times and it is as close as you can get to perfect.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

Right so fear mongering by Abe & Trump is the reason why the CCP flys nearly 1,000 bomber runs towards japanese territory causing Japan to scramble defense planes.

Fear Mongering Abe & Trump is the reason why NK fires missiles over Japan.

Fear mongering Abe & Trump is the reason Why Russia is also flying bombers in Japans direction and taken a bunch of norhtern territory.

I see you maybe looking in a mirror therefore things seem to be the opposite view.

Perhaps you should consider who is the fear mongering ones.

-12 ( +3 / -15 )

I have no problem with defence, my problem is with the scebby process and the lack of intellectual ability of those who falk over tax payer money, pocket what they can. Then the idiots hovering over the go button who are living in their own world not giving a single care about the results for the 99.9% that just want to live in peace, who don't want to be smudged on the sidewalk to bolster a politicians self importance. Get enough of that now without paying more.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Peace does not contribute to the economy as much as a threat and the need to beef up defense. The pubs want to keep the North Korean card and keep it performing for these industries.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Right so fear mongering by Abe & Trump is the reason why the CCP flys nearly 1,000 bomber runs towards japanese territory causing Japan to scramble defense planes.

Wrong, China has been targeting Taiwan, continuously flying planes into their airspace.

Fear Mongering Abe & Trump is the reason why NK fires missiles over Japan.

Wrong, Lil Kim flies missiles whenever he feels unloved.

Fear mongering Abe & Trump is the reason Why Russia is also flying bombers in Japans direction and taken a bunch of norhtern territory.

Wrong, I suggest studying history, Russia took the islands after the 2nd world war. trump was around a year old and Abe wasn't born then.

You should also pay attention to china picking up fights with India, sinking Vietnamese fishing boats and encroaching into Malaysia, Philippines , Brunei's territories.

The CCP might teach you otherwise but Xi is getting frisky and needs a good spanking!!

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Gotta have the latest in radar tech to detect the latest Chinese or NK military tech and on and on it goes. Why doesn't Japan have its own radar manufacturing company? Against the constitution? Sorry, not an expert here in regards to military tech. Probably doesn't even work.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

We should build our own system. Jobs for japan and no US spying.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

And Guess who" has shares in this company, trump does!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

We should build our own system. Jobs for japan and no US spying.

I was looking into why Japan doesn't build its own system and its mainly because "five years ago the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe adopted the three principles of defense equipment transfer, meant to be a shot in the arm for the domestic defense industry."

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/09/18/national/us-china-military-tech-japan/#.Xyduay2cbwM

Its a good read. Basically says that Japanese companies don't want to build tech that they can't ship overseas, so instead they just produce a few parts for US companies. That seems to be a trend and why Japan is falling behind in tech in many areas.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The CCP might teach you otherwise but Xi is getting frisky and needs a good spanking!!

Xi is considerate a moderate and soft against the US.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

ulyssesToday 09:48 am JST

Right so fear mongering by Abe & Trump is the reason why the CCP flys nearly 1,000 bomber runs towards japanese territory causing Japan to scramble defense planes.

Wrong, China has been targeting Taiwan, continuously flying planes into their airspace.

Fear Mongering Abe & Trump is the reason why NK fires missiles over Japan.

Wrong, Lil Kim flies missiles whenever he feels unloved.

Fear mongering Abe & Trump is the reason Why Russia is also flying bombers in Japans direction and taken a bunch of norhtern territory.

Wrong, I suggest studying history, Russia took the islands after the 2nd world war. trump was around a year old and Abe wasn't born then.

You should also pay attention to china picking up fights with India, sinking Vietnamese fishing boats and encroaching into Malaysia, Philippines , Brunei's territories.

The CCP might teach you otherwise but Xi is getting frisky and needs a good spanking!!

So obviously you and others missed the sarcasm of my post,

ulysses I completely understand about the CCP and never have been and never will be a fan of them, my post was sarcasm at some above posters who blame trump and abe for everything in their life, and even mentioned the fact about russia taking the northern islands knowning full well the history of them, well before abe or trump were out of their diapers to try to show those posters how silly their blaming abe n trump sounds.

Oh well !

1 ( +2 / -1 )

ulysses I am well aware of china and the current border with india and whats happening around the pacific hence the need to counter them and all the rest of the bullies actions, Sheesh .

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Lobbying? Modern Bitcoins instead of old-fashioned brown envelopes.

Aviation sales promotion has a colourful history in Japan.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Xi is considerate a moderate and soft against the US.

Has the meaning of the word moderate changed recently ???

If Xi is a moderate, the Lil Kim should be a choir boy!!!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

ulysses I am well aware of china and the current border with india and whats happening around the pacific hence the need to counter them and all the rest of the bullies actions, Sheesh .

Sarcasm is a double edged sword, it cuts both ways!!

And is generally lost when no one knows what you are talking about !!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Has the meaning of the word moderate changed recently ???

In China, considered to be soft in China. Like any nation, there are more hawkish leaders calling for a tougher actions.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

"Lockheed system has proven to be effective 90% of the times and it is as close as you can get to perfect."

No. Lockheed-Martin's SPY-7 radars are still in development. They are not yet mounted on any operational system. Raytheon's SPY-6 radar is just entering production and the very first examples are being mounted on a ship that is under construction and many years away from entering service. All the tests of SM-3s were conducted using SPY-1 radars. Those have been around since the 1980s and their technology is nearing the end of its usefulness. SPY-1 is what is called a Passively Scanned Phased Array antenna. SPY-6 and SPY-7 are both what are termed Actively Scanned Phased Array antennas, also abbreviated AESA for Actively Electronically Scanned Antenna. The big radars on China's Type 054D and Type 055 destroyers are AESAs. SPY-7 is built around a Gallium-Nitride device produced by Fujitsu.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Japan needs to come clean and tell both Lockheed and Raytheon that it's broke and can't afford either SPY-6 and SPY-7.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"Japan needs to come clean and tell both Lockheed and Raytheon that it's broke and can't afford either SPY-6 and SPY-7."

World's third largest economy, nation only spends 1% of its GDP on defense, that argument doesn't stand up to examination. It's really a matter of what you value. But don't be short sighted and under fund defense. That can come back to bite you, unless you are already fluent in Mandarin.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"Japan needs to come clean and tell both Lockheed and Raytheon that it's broke and can't afford either SPY-6 and SPY-7."

Japan has got far too much money & already more than enough to "entertain" China:

"F35B WIH IZUMO CLASS - JAPAN's ANSWER TO CHINA !"

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?edufilter=NULL&frags=wn&v=YIy4MLRxgh4"

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

A problem affecting all the democratic nations who rely on privately held firms to provide their military hardware is that the firms involved have become extremely adept at skinning the hard working taxpayer. In the 1960s big aircraft and missile manufacturers were run by engineers and offered investors single digit rates of return on the invested Dollar/Pound/Mark or what have you. Technical experts running companies who saw themselves as being the best at making technically challenging products. Today these firms, or their antecessors after multiple mergers are run by people with degrees in accounting, business and marketing. The no longer excel so much in making technically challenging products as they excel in making money. Their C-Suite is paid for how well their stock price and cash flow perform. That is 85% of what they are renumerated for. Customer satisfaction is maybe 2% of what they are renumerated. In the world of modern defense contractors, being on time and on or even better under budget hurts their cash flow and thus lowers their stock price. So it should not surprise anyone that these firms are extremely proficient at over running costs and at not meeting their schedule. That's what makes the company money and earns them big bonuses. They know that once they get on contract and are a year or two into the program, the military that contracted with them isn't going to cancel a big defense contract and start all over with a new request for proposals, bidding, ect. They will find a way to gut it out with their current contractor and accept the extra cost and delayed deployment of the system. Meanwhile as elected legislatures and defense ministers/secretaries wring their hands over this the executives in the big defense contractors are laughing all the way to the bank. The west very much needs to defend themselves from a number of threats including China and Russia but the deplorable conduct of the defense industry makes you want to wash your hands of it entirely. I get that. I live that actually. Until there are laws that require defense company executive pay to be based on meeting deadlines and budgets nothing will change.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I forgot to mention that where in the 1960s big defense firms, the Boeings , Lockheeds and Douglases of the world earned single digit rates of return for their investors today the big defense firms all earn very high double digit to triple digit rates of return for their investors. While investments in these firms are about as safe as investing in a public utility (those normally earn around 5% per year) these firms earn junk bond rates of return for their investors. Your tax dollars at work. Disgusting, isn't it?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The Pentagon is the one who controls Japan for decades. Japanese leaders only have the choice of choosing the American military manufacturers not anyone else.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics: merchants of death with insatiable appetites for money.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"Japanese leaders only have the choice of choosing the American military manufacturers not anyone else."

That is not the case at all. If you look at JMSDF warships you find a great many Japanese radars including a very good multi-function X-Band AESA designed in conjunction with the Dutch, indigenous Japanese sonars, Italian cannons from Oto-Breda, Japan;s own indigenous anti-ship missiles (Mitsubishi Type 90). The JASDF has the type 80 anti-ship missile soon to be replaced by the ASM-3, both of which are indigenous Mitsubishi products. The JMSDF operates two aircraft built in Japan and found nowhere else, the ShinMaywa US-2 flying boat and the Kawasaki P-1 anti-submarine patrol aircraft (Japan's equivalent to the P-8 but very different). Their big minesweeping helicopter is based on an Airbus helicopter and not one from the US. The JASDF has locally produced air to air missiles such as AAM-5 and its own locally designed and produced transport aircraft the C-1 and C-2. Japan builds its own tanks to its own designs in part because most modern tanks from the US or Europe are too wide and much too heavy for many Japanese highway bridges. Only in Hokkaido do you find the JGSDF operating a really heavy and large tank based on the German Leopard Ii design. Japan also manufactures their own armored military vehicles including some things you don't see in US service like an armored self propelled mortar or an anti-aircraft cannon mounted on a tracked vehicle. The JGSDF uses Swiss and German handguns, a Swedish recoilless rifle, a German anti-tank rocket, French, British and Austrian mortars and a German towed howitzer. Don't forget the Kawasaki OH-1 helicopter, locally made and used nowhere but Japan. Their special forces use a wild looking grenade launcher from South Africa.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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