Fair, even if the difference is probably less bad outside the US where representations of other nations tech is more common and F-2 is the go-to aircraft to represent Japan as a nation.
At least here the F-2 was one of the big well-known aircraft for just the average kid. For me it’d be Eurofighter, Tornado, F-14, F-22, Rafale, MiG-29, Su-27 and F-2 as the modern aircraft I’d know before actually developing more of an interest.
Seeing the F-16 for the first time my initial thought was it might be an upgraded F-2, because the common US aircraft was either F-15 or F-22, so I connected the appearance more to the Japanese plane.
Anyway, boy I sure do hope the F-2 and Richelieu will be worth the wait and aren’t going to be complete letdowns that kill my hype to play the game. Surely Gaijin wouldn’t do that, right?
dont remember the exact date, but Japan heavily rushed the development of the F-2 in order to beat the US to have the first flying AESA radar, but that resulted in a comical amount of problems for the F-2
F-2 may have flown first with an AESA, but its adoption was mired in problems and controversy thanks to how insanely rushed it was forcing a delay in adoption since they couldnt actually produce the full order and there were several major incidents that halted production and usage till the earlier 2000’s
There are documents of u.s-japan techonlogy exchange from the F-2s development that show that development of J/APG-1 contributed in a very limited fashion to development of the F-22s radar set.
Obviously not fully but j/apg-1 has ties to the F-22.
German, but Japan os a popular country and featured in any book/documentary about fighter jets I got to see as a kid.
Like I said, it’s usually fighter jets by country, with each country known for one, maybe two aircraft. F-2 was always “the Japanese jet”, while F-16 itself wasn’t as symbolic for the US.
honestly, the F-2A Early would be a very easy replacement for the F-16AJ. It exists and while some of its flight performance is better than the F-16A’s its also worse in some aspects, Identical missile kits except for an additionalpair of missiles, and an actual usable air to ground ordinance
Smart looking engine. As far as tanks go I’m a huge fan of the large GWR prairies. I guess my taste in British locomotives matches my American sensibilities, larger is better, lol.
my younger self didnt really know anything about fighter jets, all i knew was jets were a thing because of stuff like Godzilla but eventually i got to learn more about them thanks to video games
