When it comes to the U.S. military stationed in Japan, there must be a lot of topics to talk about. Many people regard the U.S. military stationed in Japan as an occupation force in the colonies of the old era. After all, Japan was a defeated country in World War II, and it is a past to say that the United States deployed troops and military bases here under the banner of the United Nations. But no matter how you think about it, for us in China, the strategic posture is really no different. In the past, the eastern part of the mainland was mainly in strategic conflict with Japan, but now with the addition of the United States, it often has to face the combined military strength of the United States and Japan, and this pressure is actually even greater than in the old era. However, after years of development, the mainland has already achieved a new generation of all branches of the armed forces, and it is basically impossible for the United States and Japan to blockade China by relying only on their existing Asia-Pacific military strength.
Of course, the United States is aware of this situation, so the US military recently officially announced that it is ready to completely upgrade the fighter planes of the US military stationed in Japan, spending more than $10 billion. The main thing is to deploy the latest stealth fighters to Japan, think about it, the PLA on the opposite side has already served more than 200 J-20s, and there may be J-35s to be in service in the future. If the U.S. military doesn't do anything, it will have to be pressed to the ground by the People's Liberation Army and rubbed. However, it should be noted that sending new planes over is not simply a matter of flying planes over. It was also necessary to change ground crew, maintain equipment, update ammunition and other equipment. This is a lot of money, and the United States really didn't want to give it up before, but now it can't do it, and it can't fight if it doesn't come out. There may be friends who still don't know how many fighters the US military has stationed in Japan. Let's start by counting.
First of all, the Chinese audience is most familiar with the Kadena base, where the US military has deployed 48 F-15C/D fighters, plus the F-15J of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, which used to be enough to compete with the Chinese Air Force. But not now, whether it is the US military's F-15C/D or Japan's F-15J, they are all old guys, how can they fight the new fighters that China has just put into service? Although the US military intends to replace these aircraft with the latest F-15EX, the F-15EX is still in production, and the production capacity cannot be increased, and it is estimated that it will take a long time to replace them.
The second is Misawa Air Base on the Japanese mainland, where the US military has deployed 36 F-16V fighter jets, mainly to assist the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in keeping an eye on the Russian forces near the four northern islands. There, the U.S. military plans to replace it with 48 F-35A fighters, which can be regarded as a replacement of shotguns. All of the above are the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Marine Corps has also deployed F-35B fighter jets at the Iwakuni base on the Japanese mainland, and the U.S. Marine Corps says that the number of F-35Bs here will also increase.
Even if the US military can complete the deployment, the number of US fighters stationed in Japan will only be about 100, and even if we add the dozens of new F-35A fighters of the US military living in South Korea, the total number is still a drop in the bucket compared with China's existing naval and air force strength. So we don't have to care about the update of the US military, the most important thing is the speed of our own update. The production capacity of the J-20 should be stabilized, and the J-35 should be accelerated to board the aircraft carrier. If the US military wants to play tricks in the Asia-Pacific region at this rate, it will not have that strength.