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> buying 150 F35's Your immediate neighbor is going on an imperialist streak right now, and Xi says he wants the fireworks to start in his lifetime. I don't kn

> buying 150 F35's Your immediate neighbor is going on an imperialist streak right now, and Xi says he wants the fireworks to start in his lifetime. I don't know if F35s are the right answer for Japan, but Xi isn't that young. Get ready however you can.

echelon 15d ago
The F-35s are for the children and grandchildren. It's to safeguard their future. Democracy is important and it isn't free.
- noree 15d ago
  If the Japanese are looking for technology to protect themselves against a heavily armed imperial force they should be mass producing Shaheds instead of paying tributes to the US MIC.
  - strictnein 15d ago
    They should be mass producing Iran's drone?
    - rambojohnson 15d ago
      who is winning that war right now?
      - strictnein 15d ago
        Holy non-sequitur batman. Why would Japan mass produce an inferior product when they would easily be able to design and build a far superior one? "Shahed" isn't just another word for drone, it's a specific company's name.
        hdgvhicv 14d ago
        America would buy 150 American planes rather than build is own drones which would be superior to anything Iran builds, to keep America on side.
        rambojohnson 14d ago
        [dead]
        deleted 14d ago
        [deleted]
    - noree 15d ago
      They certainly should not be buying 150 f35s judging by recent track records.
      - strictnein 15d ago
        There has been one US F35 damaged in combat. That's total, across all the areas its been in and all the countries that have deployed them, starting in 2018. They've been up against the best air defense systems in the world in Venezuela and Iran and they received a single scratch. The countries acquiring them are doing so because they are best strike fighters on the planet, and it's not even close. Unless you know something that Norway, Japan, England, the Netherlands, etc don't know?
        tw1984 15d ago
        give yourself a break. F-35 doesn't even have long range a2a missiles comparable to PL-17 in service. its radar is 2nd class at best, a full generation behind the Chinese counterpart and heavily rely on Chinese rare earth. it is 2026 now, partially de-industrialized US no longer has the best weapons in the world. that is why it is struggling to even beat Iran.
        orwin 14d ago
        The radar might be second class (not sure I would go that far, it's not a Thales radar but it's still good), but the plane is built with EW in mind, and that makes it useful. What makes it bad is how hard the cooling is, its range without range extenders (that break stealth) and the maintenance.
        kalleboo 14d ago
        I thought the cable leaks showed that Norway picked the F35 due to diplomatic pressure from the US rather than an impartial test of suitability?
  - hattmall 15d ago
    Shahed drone's are not serious weapons of war. Japan could easily produce millions of them if needed. The drones are good for antagonizing and terrorising a civilian population. A few F35s and bomber squads could reliably deplete and destroy the entire Iranian drone stock and manufacturing capacity if there was the desire and higher tolerance for civilian casualties. In other words if Japan were in a position where they were willing to use drones to indiscriminately attack soft targets an F-35 would be about a trillion times more effective.
    - nixon_why69 15d ago
      They were serious enough to defeat the US Navy and Air Force..
    - ekianjo 15d ago
      > few F35s and bomber squads could reliably deplete and destroy the entire Iranian drone stock and manufacturing capacity if there was the desire and higher tolerance for civilian casualties the current admin does not care about civilians casualties. remember the tomahawk on school girls? so what are they waiting for if it was that easy?
      - qlte 15d ago
        Yeah, it's laughable to think that somewhere in the DoD a map labeled like "Iran: Huge Undefended Drone Warehouses" has just been sitting around unused because Hegseth/Trump keep vetoing it on account of potential civilian casualties. Sure, we could easily wrap this whole thing up a couple days but the admin is choosing to remain stuck in a quagmire that's dooming GOP in the midterms. Based on a moral red line, of all things. Makes perfect sense.
        klrefg 14d ago
        They obviously could start methodically destroying civilian infrastructure to cause a huge humanitarian crisis which might force the Iranian government to collapse. They have clearly chosen not to commit to that approach so far.
  - jszymborski 15d ago
    They would need and can manage both fighter jet procurement and drone manufacturing. Although a partnership with Iran, China's close ally, would probably be ill conceived.
  - m4rtink 14d ago
    Why not both ?
mars-or_wars 15d ago
[flagged]
- mars-or_wars 15d ago
  [flagged]
  - strictnein 15d ago
    Not sure what history books you're reading, but the history of China is one of imperialism. China didn't just form with its current borders. It expanded and contracted and expanded some more for millennia.
    - mars-or_wars 15d ago
      China's borders today are essentially identical to what they were... ... when the U.S. Declaration of Independence was first uttered in 1776
      - strictnein 15d ago
        That is completely immaterial and makes absolutely no sense. An imperial power isn't one because its borders were set in 1776 (which they weren't)? Also.. this little event where they added something like 10% of the current size. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951_Chinese_annexation_of_Tibet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951_Chinese_annexation_of_Tib... But I'm sure that wasn't imperialism because they had already conquered Tibet previously... in an act of imperial expansion.
        mars-or_wars 13d ago
        [dead]
    - Insanity 15d ago
      The borders were continuously shifting, but they did stay somewhat near a focal point for centuries. The US meanwhile has an overseas empire for honestly no good reason. Highly recommend the book “How to hide an empire” which talks about the American version of colonialism.
litbear2022 15d ago
Active-duty armed personnel stormed a neighboring country's embassy with a knife. It’s really hard to guess who is pursuing expansion.
r3trohack3r 15d ago
The ministry of propaganda in China runs an English language international news channel available as an IPTV stream (https://tvexplorer.live/ https://tvexplorer.live/) If you want a better understanding of which world events China is not happy about, tuning in there to see what they cover unfavorably has been useful for me. They seem to be very unhappy about Japan building up its war fighting capacity.
- isityettime 15d ago
  > They seem to be very unhappy about Japan building up its war fighting capacity. Maybe because of Japan's history of horrific war crimes and occupation in China? You know, the actual imperial conquest for which their constitution prohibits them from having a standing air force?
  - DaSHacka 15d ago
    +15 Social Credit!
  - deleted 15d ago
    [deleted]
  - conception 15d ago
    Por que no los dos?
  - carefree-bob 14d ago
    I fail to see the logic here, can you spell this out for me? Are you saying: 1. Japan pissed off other countries and therefore does not need to defend itself from this greater threat? 2. Japan pissed off other countries and therefore should not be allowed to defend itself from this greater threat? It should just be conquered as a type of moral punishment (wasn't Japan already nuked, conquered, and occupied? Wasn't that enough? If not, why not?) 3. There is no greater threat. That Japan pissed off countries in the past has no bearing on the level of threat facing Japan today, in which case they should be allowed to spend as much as their neighbors on defense and the past is a non-issue. 4. There is a negative threat -- that Japan pissed off countries in the past means that they are now more secure and therefore less in need of defense? Which of these are you arguing? I am a little lost about how Japan committing war crimes in the past means they do need to spend as much on defense today, as this is a very counterintuitive claim, and it appears you are arguing for 4 or, if a dark personality, for 2. In which case, I'd like you to spell it out for the community to hear.
NalNezumi 14d ago
>Your immediate neighbor is going on an imperialist streak right now There's indeed a neighbor (albeit with a large ocean in between) that have imperialist streak of abducting a head of state with its military and starting a war that is actively causing global economic damage. You never know what this one is planning to drag you in to, maybe provoke another big neighbor and get yourself dragged in to the lose-lose quagmire
giardini 14d ago
A centenarian F-35 "divine wind" is the obvious solution - a descendant of the WWII kamikaze corps. I can hear the screams of "Tennoheika Banzai" (!Long live the Emperor!") as they deliver death to their enemies: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=kamikaze+&ia=images&iax=images https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=kamikaze+&ia=images&iax=ima...
Haven880 12d ago
You meant the other neighbour across the pacific? 150 F35 not going to do much really. You do know the incident over Iran with F35 and many others across Taiwan straits. China hasnt even flex their wartime muscle and already millions of drones a year production which each can be more effective and cheaper than the one used by Iranian. Plus you know America carrier fleet no longer near that region.

echelon 15d ago

The F-35s are for the children and grandchildren. It's to safeguard their future. Democracy is important and it isn't free.

noree 15d ago
If the Japanese are looking for technology to protect themselves against a heavily armed imperial force they should be mass producing Shaheds instead of paying tributes to the US MIC.
- strictnein 15d ago
  They should be mass producing Iran's drone?
  - rambojohnson 15d ago
    who is winning that war right now?
    - strictnein 15d ago
      Holy non-sequitur batman. Why would Japan mass produce an inferior product when they would easily be able to design and build a far superior one? "Shahed" isn't just another word for drone, it's a specific company's name.
      - hdgvhicv 14d ago
        America would buy 150 American planes rather than build is own drones which would be superior to anything Iran builds, to keep America on side.
        rambojohnson 14d ago
        [dead]
      - deleted 14d ago
        [deleted]
  - noree 15d ago
    They certainly should not be buying 150 f35s judging by recent track records.
    - strictnein 15d ago
      There has been one US F35 damaged in combat. That's total, across all the areas its been in and all the countries that have deployed them, starting in 2018. They've been up against the best air defense systems in the world in Venezuela and Iran and they received a single scratch. The countries acquiring them are doing so because they are best strike fighters on the planet, and it's not even close. Unless you know something that Norway, Japan, England, the Netherlands, etc don't know?
      - tw1984 15d ago
        give yourself a break. F-35 doesn't even have long range a2a missiles comparable to PL-17 in service. its radar is 2nd class at best, a full generation behind the Chinese counterpart and heavily rely on Chinese rare earth. it is 2026 now, partially de-industrialized US no longer has the best weapons in the world. that is why it is struggling to even beat Iran.
        orwin 14d ago
        The radar might be second class (not sure I would go that far, it's not a Thales radar but it's still good), but the plane is built with EW in mind, and that makes it useful. What makes it bad is how hard the cooling is, its range without range extenders (that break stealth) and the maintenance.
      - kalleboo 14d ago
        I thought the cable leaks showed that Norway picked the F35 due to diplomatic pressure from the US rather than an impartial test of suitability?
- hattmall 15d ago
  Shahed drone's are not serious weapons of war. Japan could easily produce millions of them if needed. The drones are good for antagonizing and terrorising a civilian population. A few F35s and bomber squads could reliably deplete and destroy the entire Iranian drone stock and manufacturing capacity if there was the desire and higher tolerance for civilian casualties. In other words if Japan were in a position where they were willing to use drones to indiscriminately attack soft targets an F-35 would be about a trillion times more effective.
  - nixon_why69 15d ago
    They were serious enough to defeat the US Navy and Air Force..
  - ekianjo 15d ago
    > few F35s and bomber squads could reliably deplete and destroy the entire Iranian drone stock and manufacturing capacity if there was the desire and higher tolerance for civilian casualties the current admin does not care about civilians casualties. remember the tomahawk on school girls? so what are they waiting for if it was that easy?
    - qlte 15d ago
      Yeah, it's laughable to think that somewhere in the DoD a map labeled like "Iran: Huge Undefended Drone Warehouses" has just been sitting around unused because Hegseth/Trump keep vetoing it on account of potential civilian casualties. Sure, we could easily wrap this whole thing up a couple days but the admin is choosing to remain stuck in a quagmire that's dooming GOP in the midterms. Based on a moral red line, of all things. Makes perfect sense.
      - klrefg 14d ago
        They obviously could start methodically destroying civilian infrastructure to cause a huge humanitarian crisis which might force the Iranian government to collapse. They have clearly chosen not to commit to that approach so far.
- jszymborski 15d ago
  They would need and can manage both fighter jet procurement and drone manufacturing. Although a partnership with Iran, China's close ally, would probably be ill conceived.
- m4rtink 14d ago
  Why not both ?

mars-or_wars 15d ago

[flagged]

mars-or_wars 15d ago
[flagged]
- strictnein 15d ago
  Not sure what history books you're reading, but the history of China is one of imperialism. China didn't just form with its current borders. It expanded and contracted and expanded some more for millennia.
  - mars-or_wars 15d ago
    China's borders today are essentially identical to what they were... ... when the U.S. Declaration of Independence was first uttered in 1776
    - strictnein 15d ago
      That is completely immaterial and makes absolutely no sense. An imperial power isn't one because its borders were set in 1776 (which they weren't)? Also.. this little event where they added something like 10% of the current size. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951_Chinese_annexation_of_Tibet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951_Chinese_annexation_of_Tib... But I'm sure that wasn't imperialism because they had already conquered Tibet previously... in an act of imperial expansion.
      - mars-or_wars 13d ago
        [dead]
  - Insanity 15d ago
    The borders were continuously shifting, but they did stay somewhat near a focal point for centuries. The US meanwhile has an overseas empire for honestly no good reason. Highly recommend the book “How to hide an empire” which talks about the American version of colonialism.

litbear2022 15d ago

Active-duty armed personnel stormed a neighboring country's embassy with a knife. It’s really hard to guess who is pursuing expansion.

r3trohack3r 15d ago

The ministry of propaganda in China runs an English language international news channel available as an IPTV stream (https://tvexplorer.live/ https://tvexplorer.live/) If you want a better understanding of which world events China is not happy about, tuning in there to see what they cover unfavorably has been useful for me. They seem to be very unhappy about Japan building up its war fighting capacity.

isityettime 15d ago
> They seem to be very unhappy about Japan building up its war fighting capacity. Maybe because of Japan's history of horrific war crimes and occupation in China? You know, the actual imperial conquest for which their constitution prohibits them from having a standing air force?
- DaSHacka 15d ago
  +15 Social Credit!
- deleted 15d ago
  [deleted]
- conception 15d ago
  Por que no los dos?
- carefree-bob 14d ago
  I fail to see the logic here, can you spell this out for me? Are you saying: 1. Japan pissed off other countries and therefore does not need to defend itself from this greater threat? 2. Japan pissed off other countries and therefore should not be allowed to defend itself from this greater threat? It should just be conquered as a type of moral punishment (wasn't Japan already nuked, conquered, and occupied? Wasn't that enough? If not, why not?) 3. There is no greater threat. That Japan pissed off countries in the past has no bearing on the level of threat facing Japan today, in which case they should be allowed to spend as much as their neighbors on defense and the past is a non-issue. 4. There is a negative threat -- that Japan pissed off countries in the past means that they are now more secure and therefore less in need of defense? Which of these are you arguing? I am a little lost about how Japan committing war crimes in the past means they do need to spend as much on defense today, as this is a very counterintuitive claim, and it appears you are arguing for 4 or, if a dark personality, for 2. In which case, I'd like you to spell it out for the community to hear.

NalNezumi 14d ago

>Your immediate neighbor is going on an imperialist streak right now There's indeed a neighbor (albeit with a large ocean in between) that have imperialist streak of abducting a head of state with its military and starting a war that is actively causing global economic damage. You never know what this one is planning to drag you in to, maybe provoke another big neighbor and get yourself dragged in to the lose-lose quagmire

giardini 14d ago

A centenarian F-35 "divine wind" is the obvious solution - a descendant of the WWII kamikaze corps. I can hear the screams of "Tennoheika Banzai" (!Long live the Emperor!") as they deliver death to their enemies: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=kamikaze+&ia=images&iax=images https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=kamikaze+&ia=images&iax=ima...

Haven880 12d ago

You meant the other neighbour across the pacific? 150 F35 not going to do much really. You do know the incident over Iran with F35 and many others across Taiwan straits. China hasnt even flex their wartime muscle and already millions of drones a year production which each can be more effective and cheaper than the one used by Iranian. Plus you know America carrier fleet no longer near that region.