Replacing Japan's "Ghost Eye": F-35 or Global Hawk, which one is more reliable?
It's an unusual moment, like your old phone finally can't stand the torture of all kinds of problems, and you have to make a decision whether to change to a new high-tech model, or to stick with it and tolerate all kinds of flaws. Japan is facing such a choice, their old friend RF-4E "Ghost Eye" is about to leave the stage of history, the question is, what to replace it?
The story began with a report that the Japan Air Self-Defense Force plans to retire all RF-4E Phantom-II tactical reconnaissance aircraft by March 2020 and prepare to replace them with F-35A B multirole** fighters with reconnaissance components. Oh my God, what a heart-wrenching moment!The Ghost Eye has been their right-hand man for more than 30 years, carrying out a variety of missions, from shooting targets on the ground to dispatching in response to disasters. The F-35 and the Global Hawk are like new-tech mobile phones, fashionable and advanced, but whether they can fulfill the duties of the "ghost eye" is really a question.
The main character of the story, the RF-4E, has a unique feature of "Ghost Eyes", with a long-lens oblique camera integrated into a narrow nose, and excellent reconnaissance capabilities. However, this guy is old, introduced in 1974, and now the maintenance situation is getting worse, and the old machine like "woodpecker" has been frequently dispatched in the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Great Japan Sea ** leak accident and the 2011 East Japan **, but it seems that it can no longer keep up with the pace of the times.
So the question is, why does Japan have to abandon this "right man and ear"?After reading the report, I realized that although the Lorop66 camera is precise, the humid weather in Japan is easy to make the negatives moldy, resulting in light refraction problems and inability to develop images normally. As a result, these old machines and negatives can only blow cold air in the climate control room. Moreover, the RF-4EJ version is still "halfway home", and its performance is slightly inferior to the original RF-4E, which makes the Japanese Ministry of Defense a little embarrassed.
Of course, some will say, why not introduce the Global Hawk?This guy is a fighter killer among unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, and it showed itself to be more powerful than the RF-4E in 2011 when the East Japan Congress was held. But the problem is that the Global Hawk is a bit too advanced, too expensive and too sophisticated, and a bit extravagant for reconnaissance at the tactical level. This is not a fuel-efficient lamp, especially for a country like Japan, which is restricted by a pacifist constitution, and wants to play such a high-tech thing, you have to think about it.
At this time, I saw comments from netizens, saying that if Japan can develop its own reconnaissance aircraft with stable performance and suitable for various environments, as China has done, why should it spend a lot of money to introduce products from other countries?Yes, China's aviation industry has developed rapidly in recent years, and various advanced first-class equipment have been unveiled one after another. This makes one wonder if Japan should put more effort into independent research and development and not always drool over the achievements of others.
Returning to the topic of the "ghost eyes" leaving, although the era of the RF-4E's "eyes and ears" is coming to an end, we can't help but wonder why send our old friends awayPerhaps, some people will feel that, just like the old mobile phone, although it has been with you for a long time, its time has passed, and it is not impossible to change it to a new one.
On the whole, the Japanese Ministry of Defense finally seems to have chosen to introduce the F-35A B multi-role fighter, although it is positioned as a "multi-role fighter", it is said that it can also perform reconnaissance operations, and because it is multi-purpose, it also performs well for air defense missions. In this way, it seems that the problem of the old machine is solved, and the restrictions of the pacifist constitution are complied with.
This also reminds me of China's J-20, although it is not the same thing as the F-35, but at least on this issue, China is really independent and developed, unlike Japan that always needs to import other people's products. Perhaps, this is a reminder for Japan to realize that in the field of military science and technology, independent innovation is the long-term solution.
All in all, Japan may embark on the path of introducing the F-35 in this generational battle, after all, it is capable of doing many things, meeting the requirements of the pacifist constitution and meeting the needs of defense. But in the process, perhaps we should reflect on why we always need to rely on other people's technology, and can't our own aviation industry be more innovative?It is hoped that Japan's military equipment in the future will be more autonomous and competitive.