Mitsubishi F-2A Viper Zero

The Mitsubishi F-2 Fighter (三菱F-2戦闘機, Mitsubishi F-2 sentou-ki) is a Strike fighter manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Lockheed Martin for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, with a 60/40 split in manufacturing between Japan and the USA. Production started in 1996 and the first aircraft entered service in 2000. By 2008, the first 76 aircraft are expected to be in service, with a total of 94 airframes under contract.

In FY2005, Ministry of Defense changed the category from Support Fighter to Fighter.

Description
The F-2 is a Japanese domestically developed 4th generation fighter based on the F-16 airframe, but with a 25% larger wing and reshaped tail faring. It is designed to replace the F-1 in Japanese service. Though fully-capable of air-to-air combat, the F-2 is optimized for ground attack and maritime shipping patrol. Using an advanced avionics suite developed by Mitsubishi and a new actively-scanned array radar, the F-2 has excellent air and ground tracking ability, with the capability to fire a multitude of ranged surface-attack weapons. Overall performance is similar to the Block 50/52 F-16C Fighting Falcon, albeit the installation of an uprated F110 turbofan engine. Unique about the fighter is the allowance of certain radar-absorbent materials applied to the leading-edges of the aircraft. 141 were planned to be ordered by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, however due to cost-efficiency, suffered severe cutbacks to about 100 aircraft, due to the aircraft's 108 million dollar price tag.

Specifications
General characteristics Performance Armament
 * Crew: 1 (or 2 for the F-2B)
 * Length: 15.52 m (50 ft 11 in)
 * Wingspan: 11.13 m (36 ft 6 in)
 * Height: 4.69 m (15 ft 5 in)
 * Wing area: 34.84 m² (375 ft²)
 * Empty weight: 9,527 kg (21,000 lb)
 * Loaded weight: 15,000 kg (33,000 lb) F-2A_Viper_Zero.jpg
 * Max takeoff weight: 22,100 kg (48,700 lb)
 * Powerplant: 1× General Electric F110-GE-129 turbofan
 * Dry thrust: 76 kN (17,000 lbf)
 * Thrust with afterburner: 120-125 kN (29,500 lbf)
 * Maximum speed: Mach 2.0
 * Range: 834 km on anti-ship mission (520 miles)
 * Service ceiling: 18,000 m (59,000 ft)
 * Wing loading: 430 kg/m² at weight of 15,000 kg (88 lb/ft²)
 * Thrust/weight: 0.89

Avionics
 * 20 mm JM61A1 cannon, plus maximum weapon load of 8,085 kg:
 * AAMs: AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-7 Sparrow, Mitsubishi AAM-3, Mitsubishi AAM-4 (from FY2010)
 * air-to-ground weapons include: ASM-1 and ASM-2 anti-ship missiles, various free-fall bombs with GCS-1 IIR seeker heads, JDAM
 * others: J/AAQ-2 FLIR


 * Mitsubishi Active Electronically Scanned Array radar system including J/APG-1