Japan to fund stealth fighter study

Japan's Y4.8 trillion ($41.4 billion) defence budget request for fiscal year 2008 includes an initial Y15.7 billion allocation from the nation's air force to support an advanced technology demonstration project to research stealth technologies to support the future production of an indigenous fifth-generation fighter.

Japan's Technical Research and Development Institute has already conducted integration work on the so-called ATD-X project. A full-scale mock-up of a possible F-XX fighter design has already been produced, with the concept eyed as a successor to the air force's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries/Boeing F-15s.

Source: Flight International