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| The F-35 is less than a year old and was delivered to the Japanese Air Force in May last year |
Tokyo - It is reported that Japan will spend nearly $500 million to upgrade their F-15 fleet. With that money, the Japanese F-15 would be a variant of the Super Interceptor.
This variant itself is said to be comparable to the F-35, the next generation fighter. This effort was made because of the threat of Chinese warplanes that often "disturbed" the sovereignty of airspace. Japan has a territorial dispute with China involving the Senkaku Islands.
Quoted from Defense Security Asia, work on the Japanese F-15 will be carried out at Boeing's facility in St. Louis, USA and is expected to be completed in 2028.
Boeing claims that upgrading the F-15 to the Super Interceptors variant will increase the overall capabilities of the Japanese Air Force.
As mentioned above, Japan's efforts to improve the capabilities of their F-15 fleet are related to the Chinese threat. Between April and November last year, 643 foreign military aircraft entered Japanese airspace. And 486 of them belong to the Chinese military.
Read Also: Japan Ready To Upgrade F-15J Fighter To 'Super Interceptor' Variant With Several New Systems
F-15 Super Interceptor
Quoted from Military Aerospace, Japan intends to upgrade their F-15 fighter to the most capable variant. It is said, this capability will be comparable to the F 15EX, a more modern and sophisticated fighter aircraft.
Some of the upgrades include new systems, such as the Raytheon AN/APG-82 (V)1 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, the new BAE Systems AN/ALQ-239 digital electronic warfare (EW) system, as well as several new weapon systems.
With the upgrade, Japan hopes their F-15 will be the same as the US Air Force's F 15EX. The West itself refuses to upgrade some of the older variants of the F-15. They prefer to buy the F-15 EX variant which is the newest model of this fighter.
The F 15EX features a fly-by-wire flight control system, digital EW suite, infrared search and tracking (IRST) and Raytheon APG-63(v)3 AESA radar. The EX variant itself is capable of carrying more ammunition than any fighter in its class. He can even fire a 7,000 pound hypersonic missile.
Although it doesn't have the stealth capabilities of the 5th generation, the F 15EX is equipped with heavy weapons. Includes 22 medium-range air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-9X Sidewinder and AMRAAM.