with that said I that YManchun is right on the money that Japan has no strategic interest in purchasing 22s. The Joint Fighter F-35s are right around the corner and offer more flexibility and more cutting edge techno. I’m not sure why globalsecurity.org doesn’t list it but Japan operates 2 squadrons of F-16s procured through a late 80s early 90s deal. The F-22 is the replacement for F-16s not F-15s and Japan has no need for air superiority fighters.

of course lockheed martin and pratt and whitney will try to sell to whoever, so if someone bites, tata…if they have their way they’ll sell Mr. Smith or Mr. Kim a bird if the price is right.

The South Korean navy already has it eyes set on the F-35B/C; but they’re not in any rush to get them. The ROKAF has interest in acquiring F35A and F-22/A, but hasn’t made any moves at this time.

“The overseas F-22 would cost only a bit more than the current F-2 they??e building, so why not? The Japanese could put the aircraft to good use as a China deterrent. Plus, they could easily take out Korea?? F-15Ks based on Cheju-do of they had to.”

F-22 is a air superiority fighter, not a fighter-bomber. F-35 would be perfect for that task.

FYI, that is also the reason why ROK chose F15K over the Rafael. People assumed that the ROKAF chose F15K because of US pressure, that is just not the case, the general public are just ignorant of what the ROKAF is looking for and are mixing up what kind of roles the Rafale and F15K plays in. The Korean air force right from the start wanted a fighter-bomber; Rafale is technically superior to the F15K in air-to-air combat, but its just a pure plane-killer and plus it would have brought a lot of uncertainties to the air force, most Korea’s weapons are US made and F15E certified. Although, Dassault has promised full weapons integration, many of the senior officers has their doubts that Rafale can fly as efficiently (since there’s no telling how the american weapons will effect the plane’s aerodynamics). F15K’s massive 25,000 pound payload and use wide variety of ammunitions such as the JDAMS and SLAM-ER missiles, is just the kind of thing they were looking for in case of NK bombardament.

“I wonder if it is the avionics that come with such a plane that make it so formidable a weapon . . .”

Its the AESA radar and the low radar cross section that is the highlight of the plane. Its RCS on radar is equal to a metal marble. It can detect and kill any plane in the world before being detected. The British Defense Evaluation and Research Agency conducted a simulation of the F-22 and other planes against the Su-27. Based on their research F-22 had the highest kill ratio of any plane (10 Su-27 killed versus 1 F-22), more then double the kill ratio of its closest competitor (European Typhoon).

For dogfighting, it has nozzel vectoring technology to match the manueverability of Su-37s. But speed and manueverability, isn’t that important in today’s engagements. There is only so much G-force and human body can take.

Korea just has to make up its mind, or face destruction.