On both sides of the Pacific, anxieties related to the FS-X deal are running high.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
The FS-X project raises a number of concerns from both U.S. security and trade perspectives.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
In several respects the modified FS-X deal improves significantly upon the original deal on this score.
First, the unchanged language of the FS-X agreements provides essentially no definition for technical data.
The Japanese have asserted that they will revert to their original plan if the FS-X deal is derailed.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
Not surprisingly, the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) was a key player in the FS-X negotiations.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
The FS-X agreement does not provide for the transfer of manufacturing technology for engines to power the new aircraft.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
Is there reason to believe things will be different with respect to technologies sought pursuant to the FS-X deal?
Trade Benefits: The FS-X will help the U.S. trade balance in the short-term.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
Unfortunately, it is much more likely that the FS-X arrangement will be cited as a precedent in a less desirable way.
The Japanese may not fully appreciate that the FS-X is fast becoming a symbol for a broader fear of declining U.S. competitiveness.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
The Bush Administration has, however, chosen to conduct an intensive review of the prospective impact of the FS-X agreement on American competitiveness.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
Particularly noteworthy in this regard are new, express commitments to percentage shares of the co-development and co-production phases of the FS-X program.
The data to be transferred in connection with the FS-X is currently available to other U.S. allies who already participate in F-16 manufacturing.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
If the FS-X negotiations served no other purpose but to establish firmly such a precedent, they would have been well worth the aggravation.
Non-transferability: According to General Dynamics, the FS-X program transfers neither technology nor methodology especially useful to a Japanese competitor in the commercial aerospace market.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
That is, the project will not go forward until Congress has had at least 30 days to review the specifics of the FS-X proposal.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
The FS-X project raises complex and legitimate security and trade concerns.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
As opposed to the near-term improvement an off-the-shelf procurement of modern U.S. aircraft could have afforded, the FS-X will not enter service until the late 1990s.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
Congress should, if it does anything with regard to "fixing the process" in the aftermath of the FS-X deal, ensure that an honest broker is created.
As a result of this effort, I am persuaded that many of the serious shortcomings with the first FS-X deal have now been addressed, if not eliminated.
Under the terms of the agreement, Japan will modify an existing F-16 design to produce by the late 1990s a new aircraft, designated the FS-X (Fighter Support Experimental).
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
The agreement contains FS-X technology flow-back guarantees, including U.S. participation in the manufacture and testing of new technology components such as advanced co-cured composite wings, new avionics, and phased-array radar.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
They argue that recent aerodynamic, electronic and material development advances in Japan point to the existence of the appropriate technical skills necessary for Japan to build the FS-X without U.S. participation.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
The Bush Administration is to be commended for undertaking this review and the Congress encouraged to give great weight to that assessment's conclusions in its subsequent deliberations on the FS-X deal.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
Had the Japanese decided to exclude the U.S. from participation in the development and production of the FS-X, no trade, technology transfer, or employment benefits would accrue to the United States.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
Space launch: Technologies codeveloped by the FS-X project may contribute to Japanese efforts to build an indigenous space launch industry -- again in competition with America's own developing commercial launch capabilities.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
Is Japan willing to consider offsetting the codevelopment arrangement on the FS-X with a substantial off-the-shelf defense purchase to demonstrate Japanese willingness to buy American when it is sensible to do so?
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
This paper is designed to illuminate the arguments in favor and against the FS-X project, to pose questions that should be considered in the course of congressional deliberations, and to suggest a possible approach.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
Opponents in both Houses have, nonetheless, begun to express serious reservations about the FS-X deal, principally on the grounds that the long-term implications for U.S. competitiveness have not been adequately factored into the arrangement.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The US-Japan FS-X Fighter Agreement: Assessing The Stakes
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