What Is The Mitsubishi F-2 And How Is It Related To The F-16 Fighter Jet?

Mitsubishi is a brand name typically known for vehicles such as its the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV hybrid SUV. But there's also the automaker's former parent company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, whose products include both civilian and military aircraft. Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing license out their designs to oversea countries, so if foreign fighter jets look familiar, that's why. The F-2 Support Fighter is one such licensed design, based on General Dynamics' F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet, a lightweight fighter conceived in the 1970s.

Mistubishi started developing the F-2 — dubbed the "Viper Zero" as an homage to both the "Viper" name American crews gave F-16s and the Japanese "Zero" planes Mitsubishi made during World War II — in the late '80s. By 1995, Mitsubishi had a working prototype in the air, and it delivered the first production model to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force in 2000. Mitsubishi built the F-2 to have a larger wing area than the F16 by 25% and was the first fighter jet equipped with an Active Electronically Scanned Array radar, a system that gives the pilot better situational awareness and is commonly found in fighters today.

The larger wing area gives the Viper Zero more room for storing fuel than the F-16 as well as two additional stations for storing missiles or bombs. It's suited for both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, but Japan favors its air-to-ground capabilities as a means of defending its sea lanes.

By the time Mitsubishi started building its prototype, the F-16 Falcon had been serving the U.S. Air Force for more than a decade, giving the F-2's design team a good idea its deficiencies. The team built the F-2's wings out of graphite epoxy and composites, decreasing the jet's weight while improving its strength. The plane's fuselage is about 17 inches longer than the F-16's, putting it close to 51 feet long since the F-16 is 49 feet 5" inches in length. And Mitsubishi built its fighter with radio-wave-absorbing material to give it a smaller radar signature, something fifth-generation fighter jets prioritize.

American manufacturers and Mitsubishi split the workload for F-2 development, with around 60% of the jet being produced by Japan and roughly 40% by America. The plane's engine is a licensed production of the General Electric F110-GE-100/129 used in the Falcon, giving it a maximum speed of Mach 2. Other components built in Japan include Mitsubishi's J/APG-1 AESA radar, the head-up display, and the inertial navigation system.

Theoretically, two powers Japanese pilots could come into contact with are North Korea and China. If the Japanese pilots went head-to-head with North Korean pilots, the F-2 would very likely come out ahead. That's not really because of the plane, though. 

North Korea's primary interceptor is the MiG-29 Fulcrum, an F-15 equivalent, which holds a technological edge over the Viper Zero. But Japanese pilots routinely train with other world powers such as Italy and the U.S., exposing them to different strategies and tactics for air-to-air combat. A tool is only as good as the user, and the U.S. and Royal Dutch air forces drove this point home with their performance during Operation Allied Force over Kosovo in 1999. Air and Space Forces Magazine recounts, "The Yugoslav air force included frontline MiG-29s as well as older MiG-21s and other aircraft. American pilots shot down five aircraft in air-to-air engagements and a Dutch F-16 got a MiG-29 on the first night." 

A theoretical encounter with China's People's Liberation Army Air Force, however, is a different story. China has a more sophisticated fighter-plane inventory, and its most concerning threat is the fifth-generation J-20 "Mighty Dragon" fighter jet. This airplane is meant to go head-to-head with the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, outclassing the F-2 and F-16 in nearly every metric.

General Dynamics originated the F-16 Falcon fighter-jet program, but the company's aviation division was eventually bought out by Lockheed Martin. Today, Lockheed is hard at work improving the design of the F-16, modernizing it and transforming it from a fourth-generation fighter to something closer to fifth-gen. It's installing Northrop Grumman's advanced APG-83 AESA radar into the new Block 70/72 F-16, giving it some overlap with the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. With additional structural and avionics upgrades, the F-16 would be able to serve the U.S. Air Force until 2060, perhaps even longer.

Japan is currently in need of a replacement for the aging Viper Zero. Something that's only close to a fifth-gen fighter isn't good enough as Japan contemplates the threat from China, so it's unlikely it will adopt the Block 70/72 F-16 to replace the F-2. Many critics have said that the F-2 has been too expensive for Japan and the improvements over the F-16 haven't been cost-effective, especially since older F-15 Eagle models outperform the F-2.

So Japan is currently working on a next-gen fighter in partnership with the U.K. and Italy under the Global Combat Air Program, and it already uses Lockheed Martin's fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II. What seems certain is that the F-2 will remain in service for at least the next decade, until the Japan Air Self-Defense Force is able to get a homegrown replacement off the ground.