China’s Worst F-35 and Aircraft Carrier Nightmare Is About to Come True
By: Dave Axe for The National Interest, Jan. 18, 2019
If other navies’ experiences are any indication, the Izumos could embark a dozen or more F-35s plus supporting helicopters. It’s worth noting that the Japanese army is buying V-22 tiltrotor transports that also could operate from the navy’s carriers.
Japan’s cabinet on Dec. 18, 2018 approved a plan to modify the Japanese navy’s two Izumo-class helicopter carriers to embark F-35B stealth fighters.
(This first appeared last month.)
The modifications should result in the Japanese fleet operating, for the first time since World War II, flattops with fixed-wing aircraft. With the two ships and their new planes, Tokyo could be able to duplicate the United Kingdom’s own 1982 campaign to retake the Falkland Islands from invading Argentine forces.
“You can still do a lot with a small air wing,” Eric Wertheim, an independent naval analyst and author of Combat Fleets of the World , told The National Interest . “Especially when it contains advanced stealth aircraft like the F-35B.”
At the same time the Japanese cabinet approved the ship modifications, it also endorsedthe purchase of 42 F-35Bs from Lockheed Martin, an acquisition that could cost up to $5 billion but should provide the Japanese air force more than enough fighters for the new carriers.