Originally Posted by 5.56X45mm

Hell, the Chi-Coms copy everything. They produce copies of just about every firearm that I can think of. And they would have a riot if they got anything from the F-22A fighter.

The first time a Sidewinder missile was used in a dogfight, a Taiwanese pilot shot down Mainland China Migs with them in 1958. One failed to detonate and was carried back in the tailpipe of a Mig and sent directly to Russia. It was copied and named K-13/AA-2 Atoll. We were very surprised when the Russians showed up with Sidewinders later.

One failed to detonate and was carried back in the tailpipe of a Mig

Are you saying that the missle actually went into the tail pipe of the MIG and it flew home like that?

Yup, it happened.

Haha that's a good story Missiler! I didn't know that.

Originally Posted by Whispering Death

Haha that's a good story Missiler! I didn't know that.

Just because the trigger didn't work didn't mean the heat seeker was bad. It did it's part but I think they fixed that little "gotcha" by putting a proximity and contact detonator on them. Back then, in fact, in the `60s when I worked on them, The detector was made by Honeywell and they cooled it with liquid Nitrogen which made it extremely sensitive, so to keep from the missile from turning on it's own aircraft, there were caging relays that were timed to release after the missile left the aircraft. All the pilot got was a low lock-on tone, about 6 kilohertz, in his headset to tell him he was aligned and locked on the target.

Selling F-22A's to Japan right now is a bad idea (maybe in 5 or 10 years).

They alrady have there own versions of the F-15 and F-16 (F-2).

We can support Japan from either Oki or Alaska with F-22A's in the event of a "conflict."

What if Korean And China attacks at the same time? WHo does the US help? South Korea or Japan?

Originally Posted by zander_0633

What if Korean And China attacks at the same time? WHo does the US help? South Korea or Japan?

Both, and I am sure there is a plan filed away somewhere for just that occasion....

Definiely ! The US would not be unprepared!

With the US now in its 4th (or is it 5th) generation of stealth technology with the F-22. With other countries not even having produced a successful 1st generation product, the only way anyone can catch up is if they can pirate the technology.. developing it on their own would take too long and be too costly. Selling the raptor is not worth the risk of compromising its secrets and losing one's strategic advantage.