Japan Nears to Develop its own Fifth-generation Fighter

F-3 will become Japan’s First Indigenous Fighter Jet in Post-WW2 Years

compiled from SANKEI Shimbun online, March 17, 2015

keywords: Fifth-generation Fighter; F-3; ATD-X; HSE

Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has confirmed its policy to develop a new stealth fighter plane, temporarily called F-3, to replace current F-2 in Japan’s Air Self-defense Force as it sees the development of a powerful powerplant is enough feasible. This means that Japan is able to produce a high performance fighter by its own technologies. Still eying the possibility of joint development with U.S., Japan has taken a step closer to develop world-class indigenous fifth-generation fighter jets. This project will become a big project and  have far-reaching effects to not only national security but also economy, diplomacy and others.

The new engine for the new fighter with 15-ton thrust is called High-Power Slim Engine (HSE) and will be developed jointly by IHI and Defense Technical Research and Development Institute (TRDI) based on a prototype engine, XF5, that propels down-sclaed Advanced Technical Demonstrator (ATD-X). ATD-X will start flight test from the summer of 2015. The first unit of HSE for demonstration will be complete by 2018.

Manufacturing of 15-ton class jet engine for fighters calls for higher level of engineering and only a few companies, such as Pratt & Whitney, General Electric and Rolls-Royce can do it. Engine supply was a choking point for Japan to develop its indigenous fighter planes so far: without the supply of engines from U.S., it was just a drawings on paper. Once Japan tried to develop its own domestic fighter in F-2 project, it turned out to be a joint program with U.S. Should HSE really comes true, Japan finally will be able to assemble its truly indigenous fighters.

Higher thrust calls for higher temperature  of engine combustion. ATD-X carries two 5-ton class ‘demonstration engines’; temperature within the engines would climb as high as 1,600C. HSE would increase this temperature to 1,800C. The key technologies to achieve this is high-temperature withstanding materials such as single-crystal alloy and cooling of core parts of engines such as compressor, combustor, and high-pressure turbines where Japan’s unique technologies would be applied.

Engines for fifth-generation fighters call for smaller diameter but higher thrust while keeping its stealthiness. Thrust of HSE will be three times larger than ATD-X demonstrator’s engine but HSE’s diameter will be 70 centimeters while ATD-X’s is one-meter size.

In the mean time, ATD-X will commence its flight test sometime in summer of this year. A set of new technologies are planned at flight tests such as advanced stealthiness, high agile maneuverability to alter the direction of the airframe while flying straight by computer-controlled engine thrust vectors. Gathering of data would be a basis of the development of F-3 and its development plans would be formulated by 2018. When everything goes as scheduled, F-3 would be deployed by 2018.

‘F-3 would become a big turning point in Japanese aviation industry. Japan already has superior technological edges for stealth aircraft such as airframe structures, materials, peripheries of engine,’ told Akira Sato, Vice Minister of Defense when he was asked of what he expected to the development of F-3.

Even though Japan did produce certain types of military aircraft during the WW2 including Zero fighter, it was prohibited to produce any aircraft under the occupation years and its aviation industry virtually was dismantled, making aviation technologies of this country lag so much behind the world trend.

Previous examples of Japan’s works are F-2, which was jointly developed with U.S. based on the design of F-16, and F-1 of which have all retired already; both types were developed as support fighters at the beginning to intercept enemy invasion ships and partly incoming unfriendly aircraft of other countries. As for its capability to deal with fighter-to-fighter, F-2 is less powerful than Mitsubishi/Boeing F-15, the mainstay fighter type to defend Japan’s airspace.

However, F-3 is intended to achieve superior performance than the latest fighter jets of other countries in air battle.

Fighter jets are often referred to symbolize the level of aviation technologies and engineering of respective countries.  After 70 years of void, Japan has come to materialize its own fighter jet for the first time; F-3 may lead to revival of Japanese aviation industry as ‘historical turning point.’

Development of F-3 will contribute to Japan’s home economy by creating new demands. ‘As over 1,000 companies would be involved in development of a new fighter jet, its economic impact is tremendous. We will see increased employment and emergence of new technologies,’  Sato said.

Total size of procurement of F-3 may reach to 100, almost equivalent with the number of F-2 that will be retiring in coming years. MoD estimates JPY 500 to 800 billion (4.2 to 6.7 billion dollars) for the development of the new fighter jets. However, this does not include other costs of the production, retrofit upgrading, and disposal after its service life is over. MoD’s estimate in 2009 as Life Cycle Cost of 100 F-2s was JPY 3.352 trillion (28 billion dollars).

MoD’s latest calculation goes ahead: when the national budget of JPY4 trillion  (33 billion dollars) for procurement of 100 F-3s, it would create direct demands at aviation industry as much as JPY 6.9 trillion, followed by increased consumptions by more affordable employees and their families of the relevant business worth JPY1.4 trillion, leading to its overall economic effect to JPY 8.3 trillion (70 billion dollars) and employment creation for 240 thousand people.