Momentum is building within the Air Force
to sell the service’s prized F-22A Raptor — which is loaded with
super-secret systems — to trusted U.S. allies, with Japan viewed as
the most likely buyer, service and industry officials tell Inside the Air Force.

A Lockheed Martin official heavily involved in the Raptor program told ITAF Feb.
14 that a proposal to alter course and sell the Raptor to Japan is
working its way through the Air Force. Lockheed is leading development
and production work on the service’s newest fighter.

“Right now, the proposal is at the three- or four-star level”
within the Air Force, the Lockheed official said. “It’s not at the
highest levels yet . . . to the people who really count — but it’s
getting there.”

Several service officials, including a key four-star command chief, that have spoken with ITAF also
have confirmed that the notion of selling a yet-undetermined number of
Raptors to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) is indeed picking
up steam among blue-suited military and civilian decision-makers.

Air Combat Command chief Gen. Ronald Keys told ITAF Feb. 2
after his remarks at a conference in Lake Buena Vista, FL, that service
officials are debating the notion of putting the F-22A on the
international market. Several service officials, who all requested
anonymity, have since said the proposal is gaining strength and working
its way through the Air Force’s cumbersome bureaucracy.

The revived proposal comes as Lockheed has seen the Air Force
dramatically scale back its F-22A program. The service initially
intended to purchase 381 fighters, but has since scaled that figure
back to just over 180. Overseas sales would help the defense giant
swell its shrinking F-22A bottom line.

Several industry officials employed by companies partnering with
Lockheed on the multibillion-dollar fighter program contacted by ITAF over the past two weeks also confirmed the notion is picking up steam within the air service.

“I’d say there is definitely a renewed interest to develop an international variant” of the F-22A, a Boeing official told ITAF Feb.
2 at the same Florida conference. Boeing is under contract to develop
several Raptor components, including its wings, aft-fuselage and
avionics systems, according to a company fact sheet. Boeing also is
responsible for 70 percent of the F-22A’s mission software as well as
other components, the fact sheet states.

Defense officials and military analysts, including Loren Thompson of
the Washington-based Lexington Institute, contacted this week all
agreed Japan is atop what appears at first glance to be a short list of
possible Raptor suitors.

Why would there be so few nations in line to buy what is touted by
U.S. officials as the most capable fighter jet in history? Sources
pointed to several reasons.

First, a list of the Pentagon’s most trusted partners already are
heavily invested in the Joint Strike Fighter program, having sunk
millions into development work and are preparing to spend a large
amount of their respective defense budgets on their own F-35 fleets.
And second, China and an increasingly stubborn Russia are pegged by
strategic military and political thinkers as the only two nations
capable of mounting an air-to-air threat against the American military
and its allies. Several analysts said that would mean having an extra
squadron or two of the F-22As permanently “bedded down” in the region
makes strategic sense for the Pentagon.

A Japanese defense official said Feb. 14 that the Asian nation is
very interested in purchasing the F-22A as a replacement for its F-4
aircraft, and confirmed the JASDF has contacted both Raptor-maker
Lockheed Martin and the Air Force about buying the fighter.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force currently has four fighter jet
models in its fleet — F-15s, F-4 interceptors, F-2s and F-1s. The
JASDF introduced the F-4s in 1973 and has indicated it will begin
retiring them some time next decade.

At press time (Feb. 16), the Air Force had not responded to several
requests for comment submitted by a reporter over the past two weeks.

The controversial proposal would need the approval of top officials
at the Defense and State departments as well as on Capitol Hill. A
collective decision to export the fighter would require a change of
mind from the Pentagon, Foggy Bottom and Capitol Hill.

Each Washington entity has for years resisted exporting the Raptor
– even to the coziest of U.S. allies — based on fears some of the
F-22A’s most-advanced systems could “migrate” to potential adversaries,
especially China. The Asian giant is viewed by many Pentagon officials
and military scholars as the most likely nation that could take on the
U.S. military in a 20th century-style conventional war.

Air Force officials and military analysts said before the U.S. would
agree to export the Raptor to Japan, officials there would have to
agree to stipulations that F-22A technologies would not be resold to
other nations.

“It’s hard to envision the F-22A with its current capabilities being
exported, even to our closest allies. Its capabilities would almost
certainly have to be ‘watered down’ for export,” according to
Christopher Bolkcom, an analyst at the Congressional Research Service
in Washington.

By John T. Bennett