The government on Tuesday selected Lockheed Martin's F-35 as the Air-Self Defense Force's next-generation fighter over Boeing's F/A-18 and the Eurofighter Typhoon to replace aging F-4 fighters. Japan plans to purchase 42 F-35s, hoping that the first delivery will start in fiscal 2016 (April 2016-March 2017). The total cost, including maintenance cost, is expected to reach some ¥1.6 trillion.
The key factor behind the selection is the F-35's stealth capabilities to cope with stealth fighters being developed by China and Russia. The government also must have taken into consideration interoperability with the U.S. armed forces, which plan to acquire some 2,400 F-35s by 2035. But problems surround the government decision.
The biggest problem is that the decision was made while the F-35 is still in an early production stage. The F/A-18 and the Eurofighter Typhoon proved their operability through actual combat missions in Libya. Taxpayers should remember the fact that the government picked the F-35 solely on the basis of catalog data, without carrying out test flights. It also refuses to make public the grading marks of its assessment of the three candidate aircraft.