(Luft) Lockheed Martin F-22

[revan]

So wieder etwas neues zur F22.

Japan may be Reconsidering F-22 Buy
December 30, 2008
Atlanta Journal Constitution

Japan reportedly won't purchase any Marietta-built fighter jets, a development that could jeopardize production of the supersonic plane and 2,000 jobs in Cobb County.

Production of the F-22 Raptor has already come into question with President-elect Barack Obama considering halting or reducing the number of planes needed by the U.S. military.

Japan, according to the Daily Yomiuri, wouldn't buy an airplane whose future remains questionable.

"We have a firm impression that its production likely would be halted," a high-ranking Japan Defense Ministry official told the newspaper.

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No one was available for comment Monday at the Japanese embassy in Washington.

Lockheed Martin builds the F-22 at factories in Marietta and Texas. A company spokesman wouldn't comment on Japan's relationship with the F-22.

"The Foreign military sale of any U.S. weapons system is a matter of policy determined by the government of the United States [and] is subject to congressional approval," Rob Fuller said Monday via e-mail.

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee with jurisdiction over military affairs, dismissed Monday talk of the F-22's demise.

"I believe that production of the F-22 will continue and, at this time, any final decision by Japan not to seek to procure F-22's is premature," he said in an e-mail message.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said he wasn't aware that Japan would forgo the fighter.

"Obviously, if there was a threat to the F-22, it would be a severe blow to Lockheed," he added.

The F-22 can cruise at 1,100 miles an hour and destroy air and ground targets while remaining virtually undetectable to radar. But its cost --- $137 million to $300 million --- puts the F-22 squarely in the Obama administration's budget-scouring sights.

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, the Marietta Republican whose district includes the massive Lockheed Martin factory, said the nation's defense should trump Washington's newly tight-fisted ways.

"There are plenty of naysayers, who maybe don't feel we need to have air superiority," he said. "I would respectfully, totally, disagree with them."

The U.S. Air Force originally intended to buy more than 800 F-22s. The total, though, has been whittled to just over 180. Overseas sales would keep production lines open.

The Pentagon, though, has been reluctant to sell the jet fighter to foreign governments lest its highly advanced technology fall into unfriendly hands. John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, a respected military information Web site, said Japan needs the F-22 to maintain air superiority over China.

Japan is considering buying other fighter jets to replace its aging F-15 fleet, including the F-15FX built in the United States and the F-35 Lightning II, produced in the United States, Great Britain and elsewhere. The Defense Ministry is also considering the Eurofighter Typhoon built in Europe.

Pike, the military analyst, said that Washington may have a politically tough time shuttering any factory during a recession.

"These people are coming to work every day on the F-22 production line," he said. "So the notion that we lay all these people off and then come back a year later and give them shovels so they can fill potholes does not sound like a plan."

Manchmal frage ich mich wie dämlich diese Politiker sein müssen, da hat einer der Treusten Verbündete denn berechtigten Wunsch nach der F22 und ist auch bereit die nötige Summe aufzubringen. Dennoch hält man den Exportbahn aufrecht und weigert sich wehemend sie zu verkaufen, es ist ja nicht so als ob man sie ja an Israel verkaufen würde.