Just like what I have said, but never expected the rebuff comes
so swift 
Even a big NO on an F-22 export version
US Arms-Sale
Chief Discounts F-22 Sale To Japan
The top U.S. government arms-sale official all but
dismissed prospects for supplying the United States' premier
fighter jet to Japan.
Reuters
The top U.S. government arms-sale official on Friday all but
dismissed prospects for supplying the United States' premier
fighter jet to Japan or Israel, even if a sale is cleared by
Congress.
Designing an export version of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s
radar-evading F-22 Raptor could cost more than $1 billion and be
"prohibitively expensive" for any would-be foreign buyer, said Air
Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, head of the Pentagon's Defense
Security Cooperation Agency.
"If (export) were to be considered, which it's not, it essentially
would have to be redesigned, rebuilt, retested and then go into
production," Kohler, who oversees government-to-government arms
sales, told Reuters in a brief interview.
The issue matters to Lockheed and its F-22 partners -- Boeing Co.
and United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney unit -- because
overseas sales could extend the production line beyond 2011, when
the last of the 183 Raptors currently planned is due to be sent to
the U.S. Air Force.
Any redesign, Kohler said, would require degrading the aircraft's
capabilities and making them tamper-proof to keep the technology
exclusive -- a process he said would take years.
"This airplane was built to give us an edge way into the future,
and that's why it's not exportable."
Japanese military officials are eyeing the F-22, the U.S. Air
Force's primary air superiority fighter, as part of their response
to growing regional missile threats, among other things.
The first F-22 overseas deployment was to Kadena Air Base on
Okinawa, Japan, this year. Twelve are still in the region. The
aircraft goes for $136 million per copy, not including development
costs.
"BECOMING COMPELLING"
"I'm aware the Japanese are interested in the F-22," Gen. Peter
Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an April 17
interview with Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. "I'm
also aware of our concerns about what we export and don't export in
our high-end technology.
"We're committed to the defense of Japan, so we'll work our way
through it," Pace said, according to an official transcript. "I
think we all need to be concerned about both ballistic and cruise
missile defense."
Loren Thompson, an analyst close to the Pentagon and to military
contractors, discounted Kohler's comments as having been overtaken
by senior Air Force officials' latest thinking.
"Strategic reasons for sharing the plane are becoming compelling,"
including cruise missile defense, said Thompson, of the Arlington,
Virginia-based Lexington Institute, a research firm.
Another motivating factor, he said, is a belief that Japan may be
willing to fund development of a new version that would be more of
a bomber.
Israel is also widely reported to have shown interest in acquiring
the F-22, which entered the U.S. combat fleet in December 2005, 20
years after it was conceived to battle Soviet MiG fighters over
Europe.
As a prelude to exports, the U.S. Congress would have to lift a
decade-old ban on overseas sales of the F-22, which features
fuel-efficient supersonic speed and integrated electronic brains
that could help defeat cruise missiles.
The ban was enacted to make sure the United States kept its
technological edge. But the reported interest of Japan and Israel
has fueled talk of reversing the law.
Dennis Wilder, senior director for East Asian Affairs on the White
House National Security Council staff, told reporters this week
that the Bush administration is "very positively disposed to
talking to the Japanese about future-generation fighter
aircraft.
"Whether it's going to be one model or another of aircraft is an
open question at this point," he said on Wednesday, ahead of talks
between President Bush and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan which
may have included the issue.
Kohler told Reuters the U.S. intent was to supply Lockheed Martin's
next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, due to be available for
export in about 2015.
Joseph Quimby, a spokesman for Lockheed's F-22 program, said, "Any
discussions pertaining to foreign sales of the F-22 are the
province of the U.S. government." (Reuters)
