Japan Selects F-35 Fighter Jet
Japan has officially picked the Lockheed F-35 Lightning (JSF) as the replacement for its aging fleet of fighter aircraft.
As Bloomberg reports, the jets are going to be very expensive:
Japan’s F-35s will replace Boeing F-4s, which were last assembled in the country in 1981. Japan had a total of 362 fighter jets as of March 31, according to the defense ministry’s website.
The initial contract with Lockheed is for four jets in the fiscal year beginning April 1, the Bethesda, Maryland-based contractor said today in a statement. The company will begin delivering jets to Japan in 2016, Steve O’Bryan, Lockheed’s vice president for business development, said on a conference call.Japan will pay 8.9 billion yen ($114 million) for each of the first four jets, according to Masaki Fukasawa, director of aircraft division at the defense ministry. The nation’s total cost for the purchase, operation and maintenance of the 42 fighters is estimated at 1.6 trillion yen over 20 years, Fukasawa said.
The Pentagon has praised the decision, as it will apparently allow better coordination with United States and Australian forces.
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