Abe plan to purchase 5th gen. fighters from U.S

The purchase of stealth fighters for Japan Air Self Defense will be discussed during Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister's visit to the United States on February, reports our sister newspaper, Want Daily.

Abe stressed that the Defense Plan Outline and Mid-term Defense Program (FY2011-FY2015) approved by Yoshihiko Noda, his predecessor, will both be revised. Under his new direction, the structure of the self defense force will be expanded.

After his meeting with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, on Jan. 18, Fumio Kishida, the Japanese foreign minister returned to Japan to arrange Abe's visit to the US on Feb. 20. Abe plans to sign a contract worth US$1.3 billion to purchase four fifth generation fighter jets from the US. The contract will also give Japan license to assemble those four stealth fighters domestically.

A statement in the China's military publication People's Liberation Army Daily on Jan. 20 encouraged soldiers, sailors and airmen to prepare for a potential war in the near future.While praising the outstanding performance of the Chinese military personnel in the various exercises that took place last year, the commentary also warned them grow docile in times of peace.

General Wei Wenhao, the head of Beijing Military Region's Military Training Department, stated that peace has softened the minds of the Chinese soldiers for too long. PLA soldiers must be ready to fight and win in actual combat.

Japan's Air-to-Air Upgrade Japan's Air-to-Air Upgrade

Japan already has bought Raytheon AIM-120 Amraams, so why is it spending ¥36 billion ($468 million) to upgrade about 60 F-2 fighters with the Mitsubishi Electric Corp. AAM-4B missile?
Although the benefits to Japanese industry are obvious, details of the upgrade and the missile itself suggest that the program is giving an enormous boost to the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries fighter's ability to counter enemy aircraft. The weapon has at least one advanced feature that other such missiles lack: a seeker with an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.
The program will move into high gear in the financial year that begins April 1. The work is progressing in two parallel programs: integration of the AAM-4B missile, and upgrade of the J/APG-1 radar to a more powerful standard called J/APG-2. The improved radar, needed to exploit the new missile, will incidentally raise the capabilities of the aircraft by offering greater detection ranges.
Both systems have been developed by the Japanese defense ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute with considerable help from contractors, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the missile integration and Mitsubishi Electric for the radar. The same companies are contracted to do the installation work. Ministry officials tell Aviation Week that development went smoothly and is now complete.
Early in the development program, in 2001, the ministry gave rough indications of the AAM-4B's capabilities. It could be launched at a 20% greater range than could the then-current AAM-4 and at least as far as an “AIM-120B+,” a standard that was expected to appear around 2004. The crucial claim was that the AAM-4B could switch to autonomous guidance at a 40% greater range than either of the other two missiles and would similarly outperform what was expected to be the 2009 standard of the Russian R-77 (AA-12 Adder). In a 2010 paper, the ministry attributed the seeker's greater performance to the higher transmitting power available from the AESA.
The implication is that an F-2 firing AAM-4Bs can stop tracking the target for missile guidance much sooner than an unmodified F-2 can—and officials tell Aviation Week that the key aim of the project is indeed to increase the range at which an F-2 can turn away.
Referring to this detail, a former high-ranking U.S. Air Force officer says: “In the air-to-air realm, a 40% increase in range is very significant and would provide the [Japan Air Self-Defense Force] a very capable missile.” The same person, highly familiar with the electronic technology of air warfare, does not regard the advances claimed for the upgraded F-2 as improbable; they are to be expected, he says.