A National Treasure Is Too High A Risk?

Japan is considering a hybrid F-22.F-35 rendering. This of course to the common observer would mean an F-22 aero performance married to an F-35 electronic center with a dash of stealth sprinkled on its skin. The big discussion point for acquiring such a beast is its cost. Just losing just one to a mechanical issue or a military incident would sink over $200 million dollars at a glance. Or to common folk, it would equal about four hundred sensibly sized homes in the western world per hybrid jet.

All the lessons learned and all the advancements added to a hybrid would make a national treasure to the likes of what Nicholas Cage would hyperventilate over on his next "National Treasure" movie. It would be such an airplane equivalent to losing a battle in a war with one downed jet. However, the risk of just one loss is balanced with a victory by one super-jet. If it took out a missile battery with one shot it would set back someones industrial complex by ten years. Or a back to the drawing board event costing the adversary billions in a new missile scheme.

There is much more at stake. The national security and defense are at stake and that has no price tag for our cultural sensibilities at this time or at any time. People will fight to win at a World War II scale or just die. So the reward outweighs the risk in this case. War is already declared and for example, the US has been waging a techno-war for some time. It so far is winning through its F-35, satellites and other such devices we are not informed about during the 21st century. Money is only spent others cannot match and thus the war being fought is won through superior firepower of spending. This strategy could too also come to a dead end when an adversary comes up with something so off the wall or out of a garage it stifles those spending ludicrous amounts on military industry without end or limits.

The price for Japan building a super-fighter or Europe answering with a gen 6 fighter is what is at stake. The risk of losing that techno war is with its national resources  (money) but not its people. The national sovereignty is at risk if it cannot defend itself, Anialation is no longer a modern answer as a nation has too much to offer once subdued. The risk comes back to losing just one jet with its 200+ million costs. Today, implementing a total victory is a mad solution for any combatant, so building a fleet of maybe 100 such jets is the risk for such a great reward of defending its sovereignty. The US, being a developmental partner would make a Japanese super fighter possible. The trade for such a deal would be another 250 US F-?  A military partnership with Japan would complete the F-22 objective of about 400 in its class, as the US was seeking when it started the F-22 journey by only 187 units could be obtained. Except in this case improvements in melding the F-35 capabilities with the F-22 could be achieved.