Raptors deployed to Japan

[jesusfreak]

The United States is positioning the first of 12 F-22 fighter jets scheduled to be stationed on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa in a key U.S. response to the recent nuclear tests and missile launches from North Korea.

The deployment, however, has not escaped the attention of North Korea, which feels threatened by their presence in Japan since the F-22s are difficult to detect on radar. Bolstering this concern have been recent calls by Japanese officials to launch a preemptive strike against North Korea's missile sites.

"If Japan wages another war of conquest, their whole land will be subject to our retaliatory strike," North Korea's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmum declared. "Japan's major cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya and Kyoto are home to over a third of Japan's population, and house most of its industry. Should we launch our power counterattack, Japan will become a scene of carnage."



The F-22, known as the Raptor, is a fifth generation fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology and has multiple capabilities not only in air superiority but ground attack and electronic warfare. The F-22s recently left their home base in Langley, Va., and landed at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa. The Raptors will remain in Japan and the surrounding area for an initial four months. They come in response to assurances that President Barack Obama gave to Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso in late May of the U.S. commitment to defend Japan.

I do have one question, why is America, actually Obama committed to defending Japan and not Israel, as Obama cut the deployment of the F-22's to Israel?

[piperdown]

They are worried about loosing that 139 million/copy fiasco to small arms fire, one of Iran's new tunguska's or some lone gunner getting a lucky shot off with an optical sighted 40mm bofers gun built in the 50's. Mediocre air superiority fighter, horrible close support fighter, and stealth is useless against a single man sitting in a seat looking at it through an optical sight.

In 2004/2005 there was sufficient evidence to believe China had developed a synthetic aperture/phased array capable of seeing our stealth technology. The Czech VERA system seems to be more than capable of seeing the first gen stealth (remember we lost a Goblin to it.) The problem with stealth is that it creates a "hole" in the ambient RF. Rather than look for the aircraft with an active emitter, the aircraft is spotted by the virtual RF black hole it creates. I would suspect the deployment into the far east is intended to probe the Chinese technology in a real-world situation.

The Sukhoi BERKUT is rumored to be a test bed for a passive system in which the aircraft searches for the "hole" in the sky created when the stealth is illuminated by ground-mobile arrays. Although not in production (that we know of) in an encounter between the berkut, and a raptor, it will come to pilot skill, with the aircraft advantage being small, but biased toward the Russian jet.

We wasted way too much money on that creature, the F-35 is a far more effective aircraft, but still insanely overpriced, and this post is making me think I am back at work typing reports no one would read! I need another coffee at this point, so enough of this. It is a good looking aircraft though, isn't it? Looks much more like a real fighter than the Berkut, that bugger is ugly, even by Russian jet standards.


We all know why obummer is not supporting Israel, he is a muzzie incognito at worst, and an anti-Semite at best. But then, I tend to think he has no choice, after all, weren't the events we are seeing predicted, oh, say a few thousand years ago.

[mndapa1]

The F-22's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, and the Air Force cite a 30:1 kill ratio between Raptors and their prey. That doesn't equate to one F-22 taking on dozens of enemies; the figure means that for every Raptor shot down, 30 opposing airplanes are expected to be killed. "The F-22 was not built to fight a fair fight."

F-22 Raptors, stealth airplanes can identify and destroy foes before their targets even know they are there.



As of date. there are only 4 F-35's that exist...and 3 of them are test planes. The Air Force has two on order and a purchase agreement for 6 more.



6 other countries financed this plane and expect delivery in 2012.

I have looked into this plane alot, and with its steep price tag comes the advantages engaging enemies while still engaged in bombing runs, which makes it the most versatile and dangerous weapon of the air in the world.

The F35B in its stage developement has short takeoff abilites and vertical landing much like the Harriet.

www.rense.com/general81/f1.htm'

Just remember...this is an Air Force and Marine program, because the Navy's EA-18G which is already in mass production and is to replce the aging f-18's this fall, is already far superior to anything in any arsenal in the world. But it is no match for the F-22 or the F-35.

[piperdown]

that was the "northern edge" exercise, very very flawed, to the point it was a bit like testing a Corvette against a KTM Crossbow, by simulating the Xbow with a '74 pickup.

The OpFor was not representative of current top line aircraft, but more typical of fighters found in a USSR squadron from 1980. Likely a sufficient comparison for the mid east

By those standards, just think of the good score they could have racked up against a bunch of old Curtis peashooters?

I had my costs wrong, I was not paying attention, hadn't had enough coffee I guess. When the development cost to the USA is figured into the cost of the few ordered the cost to the taxpayer hits $330,000,000.00 for a seat in that comedy act.

All negated by the Russian/Indian joint Sukhoi PAK50FA coming online. (Ever see the pix, the concepts, and mockups are getting it the nickname "raptorsky".) Sigh, once again the US taxpayer pays for the design, and the competition shows up with the goods at a discount.

[mndapa1]

Actually, they were in simulated war games with the f-16's and f-15's when that article was written.

They are far superior to the f-16 which I have been in, and are just as complicated and more technologically advanced than the f-111's and f-117a's. They have the capabality of taking out a close by fighter without firing a shot since the deployment of the f-and rq jamming which could lead an enemy without any control of their own plane. The technology is much like a emp bomd, but uses star burst like emps bursts that are directional. Some f-18's also have this technology that has been in deployment since the assault of Baghdad.

They are by far the fastest multi use fighter we have until the f-35 which will reach 1000mph. The f-22 reported can go faster than 900 mph and would run into its own weaponry if fighting with conventional machine guns.

The Sukhoi PAK50FA, you mentioned is Russia's replacement for the Mig 29 and Su-27 which were never any match for our f-16's or f-18's. But with our advanced Air Force and Navy in the skies, it was a long time coming to match our air superiority.

It is comparable to the Raptor, but does not haves its speed or agility. It also does not have the supeiority that the f-22 has in air to air warfare, but do have a bigger payload desigen to air to land and air to sea armanents. Unlike the f-22 and f-35, there is a variation with a two seat design.

it is designed to be stealthy, but Russia has not perfected its stealth technology. The US Airforce's Auroa X-23 to be ready sometime next year along side the f-35 can be challenged by the plane, but with the x-23 and x-45 having higher altitude capabilites than the PAK 50 and the Supersonic capabitlities of the f-35, Russia will be sent back to the drawing board to make their plane versatile enough to thwart our still superiority in Air Defense and combat.