CANBERRA — I enjoyed reading the newspaper commentary in mid-May by Weston Konishi and Robert Dujarric on the hurdles to Japan's acquisition of F-22 aircraft, and broadly agreed with the thrust of their argument.

However, in my view this commentary perpetuated some misleading assumptions about the relative merits of the F-22 and F-35 and, consequently, may encourage some of our Japanese friends to strive for aging air capabilities that are arguably unsuitable for their needs.

At one point the commentary asserts that the F-35 is less advanced than the F-22. In all but one respect this is not really the case.

The F-22 will undoubtedly be the world's pre-eminent control-of-the-air fighter for the next two to three decades. Its stealth, supercruise and extreme agility aspects as well as its complementary avionics and weapons systems make it superior to the F-35 for this narrow air-to-air role, though not by a wide margin.

But the F-22 is so specialized that it is not very good at other important air combat roles. More important, it is clearly inferior to the F-35 in air-to-surface, land and maritime strikes and as an information, surveillance and reconnaissance system — both of which would appear to be essential roles for the Japanese.

The F-22 will not be able to carry the 2,000-pound class of weapons that are an essential part of the F-35's inventory. The F-22's radar currently has neither a ground mapping facility nor a precision targeting system.

The F-35 also has superior electronic defense and other systems. While there are plans to upgrade the F-22 to the F-35's standard, there are serious doubts whether funding to do this will ever be available. Even if such upgrades go ahead, the F-22 will never have the F-35's extensive suite of electro-optical sensors.

The F-35 is a newer technology aircraft, being almost a generation more current than the F-22. Indeed, many of the advanced systems on the F-35 are being considered for back-fitting onto the F-22.

The F-35 also has some advantages of range and endurance over the F-22 in most modes.

Any purchaser needs to understand that not only will the F-35 have a far lower unit cost than the F-22, but current plans call for some 16 times more F-35s than F-22s to be built. This has huge implications for relative supportability and life-cycle costs.

In short, despite its air-to-air excellence, the F-22 remains a limited war-fighting system. The F-35 is a more modern, more flexible, more easily supported, more affordable and, overall, a more capable air-combat package.

While it is, of course, for our Japanese colleagues to decide what they wish to purchase, it would be unfortunate if such judgments were made on false assumptions.

Ross Babbage ([email protected]) is chairman of The Kokoda Foundation. This article originally appeared in PacNet Newsletter.