Japan seeks foreign engines for stealth fighter prototypes
By Leithen Francis
Japan is looking to use foreign engines for the prototype aircraft needed for its fifth-generation fighter programme.
The ATD-X Shinshin programme is still in the study stage, but industry sources in Japan and overseas say Tokyo has issued a document to engine-makers seeking information and pricing on powerplants needed for two prototype aircraft.
Responses are due to be submitted by 10 May.
Japan is interested in engines in the 10,000-20,000lb thrust class (44-89kN), and has a long-list of candidates on which it is seeking information, the sources say.
These include the General Electric F404 used to power the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet, Snecma's M88-2 for the Dassault Rafale and Volvo Aero's RM12, integrated with the Saab Gripen. Its search even contains the Gas Turbine Research Establishment GTX-35VS Kaveri, still in development for India's Aeronautical Development Agency Tejas light combat aircraft.
Japan had wanted to buy Lockheed Martin's F-22 to meet its future fighter requirement, but the US government has barred exports of the type and agreed to halt production for the US Air Force. Tokyo has responded by vowing to develop its own fifth-generation fighter under the ATD-X programme.
Local engine-maker Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) has been assigned to develop the XF5-1 engine for the ATD-X. The move to source foreign engines for the prototypes could be part of efforts to give IHI more time and ensure that the overall programme remains on track.
Japanese authorities are trying to find and prosecute the person responsible for uploading the Senkaku boat ramming video to YouTube. Yesterday they apparently “ seized ” information about the uploader from Google’s offices, and today it has been announced that the IP address has been traced to an internet cafe in Kobe:＜/p>
Investigators have confirmed that the footage was not uploaded from personal computers used by the Japan Coast Guard or prosecutors, and now believe the sender posted it from the Internet cafe so as not to be identified, the sources said.
They will ask the Internet cafe to provide them with information on its users, according to the sources.
If the uploader is captured and charged with a crime, public support will be behind that person. Messages of support have already been flooding in:
As of 3 p.m. Monday, the Policy Evaluation and Public Relations Office of the Japan Coast Guard’s headquarters in Tokyo had received 250 phone calls and 770 e-mail messages, mostly supporting the leak of the video footage, officials said.
Although some inquirers said they were “ distressed about the disrespect of control and order ” represented by the leakage, the overwhelming opinion was that the leak “adhered to the public’s right to know, ” officials said.
They said only 25 calls and messages involved criticism of the coast guard’s handling of information.
The Ishigaki Coast Guard Office in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, which is the focus of the criminal investigation into the leak, has been bombarded by calls pleading authorities to “ stop the manhunt. ”
The Internet was also filled with praise for the perpetrator of the leak.
“ I would like to express gratitude to the courage and patriotism of the person who uploaded the images,” read one of many similar comments on the video-sharing website YouTube, where the footage of the collisions in the East China Sea was uploaded Thursday night.
The Asahi Shimbun compares this to the case of Takichi Nishiyama, a journalist whose career was ruined in 1971 after he was prosecuted and convicted for writing an article about asecret pact between the United States and Japanese governments.
Update : A 40-year-old coast guard officer has confessed to the upload. TV news is reporting that he will be arrested shortly.
The 05 small UAVs are developed based on the Ministry of Defense information technology and the latest robot technology has been published. Ministry of Defense, they are also developing a mobile information terminal that can be shared in real-time volunteers in action on the ground footage taken by unmanned aircraft, over the next decade, land-based national equipment for these new I would like to deploy SDF troops.
These UAVs, the Ministry of Defense, which developed in the last year referring to the American high-tech weapons, was released to the press in Kamihurano training grounds in Hokkaido. Unmanned aircraft, the propeller is rotated at high speed inside the cylindrical portion of about 50 centimeters in diameter, Kasemasu aircraft into the air like a helicopter. Furthermore, by moving the small wings attached to the bottom four, and then fly back and forth. The top high-end camera and a GPS aircraft have been built, and to pre-set altitude and flight routes, flying about 30 minutes automatically, continue to send images wirelessly to the ground. Ministry of Defense is trying to take advantage when you understand the situation and disaster victims in high-risk sites such as volcanic eruptions and landslides.
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 8, 2011; 12:34 AM
TOKYO -- A senior military official says Japan is on track to test a domestically designed prototype stealth fighter in three years.
Lt. Gen. Hideyuki Yoshioka says the prototype will likely be rolled out for a test flight on schedule in 2014.
Yoshioka is the director the air systems development at Japan's Ministry of Defense and spoke with The AP this week.
Japan has put 39 billion yen ($473 million) into the project since 2009 after it became clear the United States was not likely to sell its most advanced fighter jet because of a congressional export ban.
Japan relies to a large degree for its defense on its alliance with the United States.
But China and Russia have made great strides toward perfecting advanced stealth fighters that could rival the U.S.
The strongest recorded earthquake to hit Japan rocked the northeastern coast Friday, triggering a series of tsunami including a 10-meter wall of water that submerged residential areas and farms with muddy streams and washed away scores of people, vehicles and boats in fields and ports in the region.
The 10-meter tsunami was observed at Sendai port in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, at around 3:55 p.m. after the quake with a magnitude of 8.8 rocked the region, local police said.
A tsunami expert at the government-affiliated Port and Airport Research Institute described the tsunami following the 2:46 p.m. quake as “ one of the highest and widest in terms of areas of devastation in the nation’s history. ”
Shigeo Takahashi, senior researcher at the institute, said, “ It’s a tsunami of a once-in-a-century scale. ”
The strong quake and a series of aftershocks prompted the Japan Meteorological Agency to issue a series of tsunami warnings and advisories covering the whole coast of Japan.
The agency warned of huge tsunami in the Pacific coastal region from Hokkaido in northern Japan to Tokushima Prefecture in western Japan on Friday, following the 2:46 p.m. quake which measured the highest level of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, and issued a tsunami advisory for areas on the Sea of Japan coast in the Kinki and Chugoku regions in western Japan early Saturday.
It also advised residents in Pacific coastal areas to move to higher ground and stay away from the sea.
The agency called for the public to stay alert over the next month for aftershocks that could register a magnitude of 7 or more and trigger tsunami.
On Friday, the Defense Ministry said around 1,800 houses in the city of Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture were found to have been devastated.
TV footage showed quake-triggered tsunami causing the Natori River in Sendai to swell in spots near its mouth and a wide, muddy stream from the river rapidly moving to submerge a number of houses and buildings in residential areas and fields nearby, leveling everything in its path and hitting boats, containers, vehicles and a massive amount of lumber near the river.
After the tsunami, around 200 to 300 bodies were washed ashore in Sendai’s Wakabayashi Ward. Officials of the ward facing the Pacific Ocean said almost all of the approximately 1,200 households within a district where a tsunami alert had been issued were affected by a tsunami.
At least two Japan Coast Guard patrol boats of the 2nd Coast Guard Regional Headquarters in Shiogama in the prefecture were also washed away following a tsunami, while a fishing boat with nine crew members was struck by a tidal wave, leaving four of them, all Indonesian nationals, missing, coast guard officials said.
Other footage showed more than 20 cars and containers being washed into the sea when a tsunami hit Kamaishi port.
The National Police Agency said the area of tsunami devastation in Iwate Prefecture, also in northeastern Japan, has spread to include Kamaishi, Miyako and Iwaizumi, while quite a number of people have died or are missing following a tsunami in the coastal town of Yamada in the prefecture, where many houses were washed away.
According to the Miyagi prefectural government, 50 teachers and workers at Kesennuma Koyo Prefectural Senior High School are stranded in a school building which was flooded to its fourth floor after a tsunami hit the area.
The government also said 50 percent of the city of Higashimatsushima in the prefecture has been submerged and many residents have been left on the roofs of their homes while many buildings are on fire in the city.
The Ibaraki prefectural police said three people were carried away by tsunami while watching the ocean from their home in the eastern prefecture, while the Miyagi police said a ship carrying 100 people was washed away by tsunami.
Meanwhile, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said about 300 buildings were washed away by tsunami in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture.
The Sendai airport authority in Miyagi Prefecture said the airport’s runways were submerged by tidal waves. The Air Self-Defense Force’s Matsushima Air Base in Miyagi was inundated with seawater, damaging 18 F-2 fighters and a number of other aircraft possibly permanently, the Defense Ministry said.
A 7.3-meter tsunami was also observed in Soma port in Fukushima Prefecture and elsewhere, the meteorological agency said, adding a 4.1-meter tsunami was observed in Kamaishi port in Iwate Prefecture.
The city government of Soma said it had confirmed that tsunami surged to around 4 to 5 kilometers inland from the coast.
The Tokyo metropolitan government said it has shut 19 of its floodgates to prepare for possible tsunami.
Meanwhile, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said a tsunami warning was in effect for more than 50 countries and regions on the Pacific coast including Russia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Chile, Marcus Island and the Northern Marianas, while weather agencies in the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Panama and Peru also issued similar warnings.
Tsunami from the quake reached countries and regions in the Pacific basin including the state of Hawaii, three islets in the Kuril Islands, including four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, and the Philippines.
WASHINGTON — The F-35 stealth jet could be dropped from the list of potential candidates for Japan's next-generation fighter because lengthy delays have cropped up in its development, according to diplomatic and defense sources.
Instead, the F/A-18 Super Hornet is expected to be picked to replace Japan's F-15 Eagle fleet, the sources said Thursday.
The F-35 Lightning 2 stealth fighter has long been considered the front-runner.
Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Defense, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that operational testing of the F-35 will begin in spring 2017.
That's far outside Japan's goal for taking delivery of its next mainstay fighter by March 2017, which means the F-35 faces being dropped.
Japan has expressed serious interest in the F-35, F/A-18 and the European-designed Eurofighter Typhoon.
The Defense Ministry and Self-Defense Forces, which place importance on coordination with U.S. forces, could pick the F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter, the sources said.
In his testimony to the Senate committee, Gilmore said the Pentagon launched a full review of the F-35 development program in 2010 due to a sharp delay and a boost in production costs.
Gilmore also hinted at further delays, saying there are many more challenges to be cleared before operational testing can commence.
In April, Tokyo narrowed down its selection to three choices — the F-35, F/A-18 and Eurofighter.
At that time, the government briefed developers about the capabilities and specifications Japan is looking for in the new fighter.
The Defense Ministry is expected to make a selection by the end of this year after receiving proposals from the manufacturers of the three aircraft by late September.
The new aircraft will replace the F-15, developed by McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing Co., as Japan's mainstay fighter and will also replace the aging fleet of F-4 Phantoms, which will be decommissioned.
The U.S. government says the delay in the F-35 development program mainly stems from problems in its operating software program and the aircraft's vertical takeoff and landing capabilities for the U.S. Marine Corps.
The U.S. armed forces plan to procure more than 2,400 of the fighters for $112 million (about ¥9.14 billion) each, a twofold increase from the estimated price in 2001, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
The single-seat and single-engine F-35 is currently under development mainly by major defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.
The F-35, which features stealth capability, is to be a multipurpose fighter capable of air support, tactical bombing and air defense missions.
The F-35 is being jointly developed by the United States, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Turkey Norway, Israel and Singapore. Lockheed Martin is the main developer.
The F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter, developed by McDonnell Douglas, is a twin-engine multipurpose fighter that can be based on aircraft carriers.
Earlier, Japan expressed hope for acquiring the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter developed jointly by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, but the United States dashed that notion by banning its export and by terminating the F-22 program itself.
* If it wants other nations to treat it like an adult, Japan needs nuclear weapons.
* Japan needs a military regime. Otherwise, it will become the vassal state of another country.
* Japan needs military conscription.
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Post time 7-11-2010 07:21 PM
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