4 ms·
The F-35s are for the children and grandchildren. It's to safeguard their future. Democracy is important and it isn't free.
by echelon 8d 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 8d agoIf 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 8d agoThey should be mass producing Iran's drone?
- rambojohnson 8d agowho is winning that war right now?
- strictnein 8d agoHoly 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 8d agoAmerica 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 7d ago[dead]
- deleted 8d ago[deleted]
- noree 8d agoThey certainly should not be buying 150 f35s judging by recent track records.
- strictnein 8d agoThere 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 8d agogive 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 8d agoThe 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 8d agoI 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 8d agoShahed 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 8d agoThey were serious enough to defeat the US Navy and Air Force..
- ekianjo 8d 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 8d agoYeah, 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 8d agoThey 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 8d agoThey 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 8d agoWhy not both ?