Britain to work with Japan on new fighter jet program

UK said this week they plan to have a fully functional demonstrator aircraft flying by 2027.

@Desert Tortoise

UK said this week they plan to have a fully functional demonstrator aircraft flying by 2027.

It never works like that for a multinational program, be it the F-35, the Typhoon, or the French-German FCAS. All of them struggled over work share disputes and that stretched development cycles.

One wonders if the Brits have seen just what incompetence Mitsubishi heavy industries is capable of.

The first domestic customers were supposed to take delivery of their MRJ - sorry "Space Jet" beginning in 2013. The program is currently on a "temporary pause" (95% of the employees have been let go/ transferred/reassigned).

As Dr. Bones McCoy once said "He's dead, Jim"

Also, given the really poor job that large Japanese Conglomerates have done keeping technology safe, I would think long and hard about giving Japan any really project critical data or tech.

@Nemo

if the Brits have seen just what incompetence Mitsubishi heavy industries is capable of.

Mitsubishi is fine as a sub-contractor manufacturing airframe parts; BAE will be the prime contractor of Tempest and Mitsubishi the Level 1 sub-contractor manufacturing parts designed by BAE, so that won't be a problem.

It is only when you ask Mitsubishi to design a new plane from scratch, develop avionics, and integrate all the systems Mitsubishi blows up spectacularly. But for manufacturing parts, Mitsubishi is great.

So these countries has realized the Lockheed F35s Lighting was a flying junk and a money pit !

@Nemo

MRJ was an ego project from the start, like ALL regional jets. If they could make a convincing business case and make an economic proposition for operators, it would already be in the air.

Save an hour so but pay a $50k (may be even more than $100k like right now) higher fuel bill than turbo-props? Shared between 100 passengers?

@elephant200

The F35 is a fifth gen aircraft, the FX is a sixth gen. For comparison sake the FX's role is more like the F22 Raptor, which USA will not export to anyone.

I hope this project gets off the ground, Japan does need a stealthy 2 engines fighter, so does Canada and Australia, and/or any other allies that has a coastline to protect.

They should call whatever they finally cobble together the Zero mk2. That is what will likely result from this "alliance".

Bring back the Zero

KF-21 maiden flight video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oErSebVZyKE

Samit Basu

It never works like that for a multinational program

Some multinational programmes have been difficult, but if the partners and their requirements are closely aligned there is much less problem.

The other major problem in any such programme is if France or Germany are involved, they have a long history of delaying projects and as the article points out there current project is mired in disputes and going nowhere, situation normal. I can see Spain pulling the plug and joining Tempest FX, provided their needs match the existing partners.

Leaving the EU had absolutely nothing to do with starting Tempest and not joining the Franco/German project, some people just have to bring it in to every thing they do regardless how irrelevant it is. The UK has different requirements from the aircraft to theirs and the requirement from the French for a naval operational capability complicates the design and is not required by the UK. Add in the problems experienced before and it was never an option.

Italy’s requirements aligned with ours and they have shown themselves to be good partners to work with! As have the Swedish

@elephant I bet you have never seen an F-35 let alone touch one personally!! Keep dreaming technology cost if you have the money you can buy it. If the aircraft is too expensive them build your own and you call it a money pit!! I see them touch them and watch them fly daily. Get out of you monitor!!

So these countries has realized the Lockheed F35s Lighting was a flying junk and a money pit !

So these countries has realized the Lockheed F35s Lighting was a flying junk and a money pit !

No. Far from it actually. If you want to fight an enemy with the best ground based air defenses the only aircraft that are survivable now are those with all aspect low observable characteristics, B-2, F-22, F-35 and soon the B-21. The capabilities of the best ground based air defenses are the raison d'etre for the F-35, to be able to get inside the best defended airspace and attack enemy targets. Your 4th gen Typhoon, Tornado or F-15E won't get you there any more. They will be shot down. F-35 is vastly better than its critics know. If the Russians decide to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine the only aircraft that could get into Russian airspace and destroy those nukes before they can be used would be NATO F-35s. Trying to do it with an F-15E, Typhoon or Rafale would be a suicide mission.

So far only the US has fully mastered the technology for all aspect stealth. There is a lot more to it than just shapes and coatings. Think Bose noise cancelling headsets and apply that idea to radar. The Russians and Chinese are not there yet, they have some frontal aspect stealth but not all aspect, and no European combat jet is even close. Nations chose to build their own combat aircraft because they do not want to have to depend on one nation for everything. Friendships and alliances can be fluid and the Europeans don't want to be left behind technologically. Ditto Japan. But their air forces are too small to justify the huge development cost of a new front line combat jet so they have to team up to afford it, and to have enough production volume to take advantage of the economies that come from series production (learning and rate curves).

Bring back the Zero

Even in WWII the Mitsubishi A6M5 was a fatally flawed fighter. The US had much better combat aircraft and their kill ratio vis-a-vis the A6M5 is testament to that. US fighters had higher top speeds, higher service ceilings and greater diving speeds and their pilots quickly figured out tactics that nullified the A6M5s superior turn rate. Read about the "Thatch Weave". US pilots would come in high unseen by the Japanese and dive on their formations and had the luxury of being able to choose when to engage their enemy below on their own terms to their best advantage. The Japanese planes had no armor, no self sealing fuel tanks and proved fragile in combat while the heavier and slower turning but faster diving US planes could absorb a lot of damage and still fly.