On the NHK news program "Sunday Debate" on October 24th, the Constitutional Democratic Party's leader, Edano, said, "I think the Air Self-Defense Force is buying obsolete fighter planes." I argued that budget spending needs scrutiny, but this is completely wrong.
It is completely incomprehensible to call the F-35, a state-of-the-art fighter, an ``obsolete fighter''.
The latest global evaluation of the F-35 was announced on June 30 this year by Switzerland Everything is expressed in this when deciding to F-35.
Because the purchase of a fighter is a big business, it is often decided not only by performance and price but also for political reasons. It's cheap," he said. Of the four candidate models, only the F-35 is a stealth aircraft, and this is the only factor that makes a decisive difference in performance.
A non-stealth machine cannot beat a stealth machine. This goes without saying, and the F-35 is the only stealth fighter Japan and Switzerland can currently afford.
The recent purchase of new fighters by the Air Self-Defense Force is a total of 147 F-35s. Since it is a replacement for an old retired fighter, the total number of fighters in the Air Self-Defense Force remains almost the same.
The Constitutional Democratic Party's leader Edano said "buy obsolete fighter planes", but they have already forgotten that they decided to buy the F-35 10 years ago when they were in power. Was it?
The fighters procured by the Air Self-Defense Force are equipment purchased with a plan to be used on the front lines for about 30 years. If it has become obsolete in just 10 years, the responsibility should lie with the Democratic Party of Japan government that decided to purchase it, but I don't think that Edano is aware of himself as the representative of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, which forms the flow of the Democratic Party. yeah.
But in the first place, the F-35 is still the most advanced fighter aircraft. A new generation of fighter jets has yet to make the F-35 a stealth fighter of the past.
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Alternatively, Edano said, "From now on, the era of unmanned drones is upon us, and manned fighters are already outdated." You may have. But even in this case it is completely wrong.
An unmanned combat aircraft capable of autonomous combat is not something that can be put into practical use right now, and AI technology must evolve further. For example, in the report "Unmanned System Integration Roadmap 2017-2042" released by the US Department of Defense in 2018, it is believed that the appearance of unmanned aircraft capable of advanced autonomous combat will be several decades later.
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It is impossible to put unmanned fighters into practical use right now, even in the near future 5 to 10 years from now. The world's answer is that it is a manned fighter without a fighter.
Currently, all of the new fighter development plans that have been concretely started in each country are manned stealth fighters. It is proof that everyone recognizes that unmanned combat aircraft are still premature.
These fighters under development cannot be purchased right now, so it cannot be said that purchasing the F-35 is wrong. Buying a new fighter is a replacement for an old fighter that will be retired, so if you don't buy it now, there will be a big hole in the defense of the sky.