On October
27, it was announced that U.S. Air Force F-15C/D Eagle fighter aircraft
would be withdrawn from Kadena Air Base located in Okinawa, Japan, in 2023.
This marks the end of a 44-year continuous presence first established in 1979.
Some U.S. experts were quick to criticize Washington for this decision since the
fighters countered China's growing influence in the region and increased combat capability.
But now it has now come to light that the Pentagon will
be transferring a much more potent replacement.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why US Air Force is deploying the F-22 Raptor
in Okinawa, Japan ? Let's get started.
Fighters in Okinawa are important from two aspects
1. The animosity between Japan and China has increased with China trying to wrest control
of the Senkaku islands. The U.S is Japan’s ally and is bound by the treaty of 'Mutual Cooperation
and Security' to come to Japan’s aid in case Japan faces aggression from an external party.
US fighters in Okinawa act as a deterrence. 2. There is growing apprehension that China may
invade Taiwan. The relationship between Taiwan–the United States is unofficial and informal and is
governed by the Taiwan Relations Act. The Taiwan Relations Act is designed to maintain ambiguity
and does not state if the USA will or will not intervene militarily if Taiwan is attacked.
In a scenario, where the U.S decides to help Taiwan militarily, the fighters in Okinawa are
supposed to play a major role since its around 500 km or 310 miles from Taiwan.
In context, it should be noted that Japan's deputy prime minister recently said the country needed to
defend Taiwan with the United States. Taro Aso during a speech in Tokyo, "If a major incident
happened [in Taiwan], it would not be strange at all if it touches on a situation threatening
survival. If that is the case, Japan and the U.S. must defend Taiwan together."
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine,
all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing).
Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas's design in
1969 to meet the service's need for a dedicated air superiority fighter. The Eagle first flew
in July 1972, and entered service in 1976. It is among the most successful modern fighters.
The Eagle has been exported to Israel, Japan, and Saudi Arabia.
Several variants like A/B/C/D/E have been developed.
When first deployed to Okinawa, the F-15 was considered the most capable fighter in the region
and remained by far the best performing to serve in any Western air force until the 2000s. China's
top fighters at the time were technologically several decades behind and no match to the Eagle.
While Eagle is still a capable platform,
China is deploying much newer and technologically more advance fighters like the Chengdu J-20.
Given the situation, a more potent fighter is required to deter China.
F
-22 Raptor is an engineering masterpiece designed for "First Look, First Shot, First Kill"
It is the first operational aircraft to combine super-cruise and super-maneuverability.
Supercruise is the ability to have sustained supersonic flight without
having to use highly inefficient afterburners.
With this F-22 can intercept targets which subsonic aircraft would lack the speed to
pursue and an afterburner-dependent aircraft would lack the fuel to catch.
This is possible due to the very powerful dual Pratt & Whitney
F119-PW-100 after-burning turbofan engines. F-22 has a speed of Mach 1.82 during super-cruise.
The AN/APG-77 radar-equipping F-22 features a low-observable, active-aperture,
electronically scanned array that can track multiple targets under any weather conditions.
It has a range of around 400 km or around 250 miles against a 1 m2 target.
This radar can also be used for electronic-attack by focusing its signals on the enemy to overload
their sensors. The radar changes frequencies more than 1,000 times per second to resist
jamming and has a Low Probability of Intercept meaning enemy radar warning
receivers are not able to detect that a radar lock has been achieved against it
Raptor is also now equipped with Link 16 through which it can connect with military
aircraft as well as ships and ground forces to exchange tactical pictures in near-real-time.
F-22 Raptor is developed from the grounds up to be stealthy. F22 is the stealthiest
fighter ever built & has a very low RCS (Radar Cross Section) of only 0.0001 m2.
It achieves this due to its structural design as well as
the use of Radar Absorbing Materials (RAM).
Raptors can’t be detected by most radars. Even if some radars are able to detect it, they will find
it very hard to track it and have a radar lock. Hence, Raptor can strike with its plethora of
air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons without the enemy knowing it is there in the first place.
A Japanese minister indicated that as of now Raptors will perform functions
on a rotational basis. I.e. six months will be at the base,
after which other aircraft from other bases will be deployed.
There is no information on exactly how many F-22s the US will send to Okinawa.
The US Defense Department has not yet decided on a long-term plan for Kadena’s
fighter presence and is still considering whether to stick with the rotational model
or eventually permanently deploy squadrons to Kadena once again.
Raptor bring a lot more to the table compared to Eagle in every aspect of aerial combat.
F-22 is a proper 5th generation fighter jet, unlike the J-20 which has suspect
stealth characteristics and is still not having engines capable of supercruise.
It has even been upgraded to include Link 16 With Link 16, military aircraft as well
as ships and ground forces may exchange their tactical picture in near-real-time.
Link 16 also supports the exchange of text messages, imagery data and provides two
channels of digital voice (2.4 kbit/s and/or 16 kbit/s in any combination).
This will greatly help the US, Japan and Taiwan to mount missions incase an eventuality crops up.