F-35A for Japan

[Trident]

1. AESA - Besides their current projects, what history of operational fighter AESA do they have?

Selex has sold the compact Vixen500 (designed for upgrading light fighters) to a US government agency (does that tell you something ) and was prevented only by LM's intervention from supplying it to South Korea for the F/A-50.

2. IRST/FLIR - I obviously meant FLIR including a laser designator for L-PGM usage. All the fighters you mentioned still need to add a FLIR pod (internal or external) in order to designate L-PGMs.

Yup, in that regard the F-35 will likely maintain a lead for some considerable time - not even the T-50 (podded) and J-20 (nothing?) seem to plan on introducing anything fully comparable for A/G-targeting.

3. MAWS - IIRC The F-22 was the first US plane with MAWS (IR) built in. When you look at the relatively small amount of Rafales, EFs, etc that do have it, me saying that "most planes" do not have is factual. By 2020 it will still be factual.

There are a lot more Rafales and Typhoons (400+ and counting) than there are F-22s Add the rest (including the Raptors) and you'd probably be pushing 800 fighters fitted with MAWS in total as of right now, not to mention the situation in 2017. If you do not limit yourself to 4.5 generation designs you are of course correct, but is it really so noteworthy that a 5th generation fighter should have more modern avionics than the vast majority of 25-year old 4th generation fleets? That's setting your sights awfully low for an aircraft where the electronics and sensors are advertised as a major selling point over not only its predecessors but also its peers on the export market.

4. HOBS shots - I was speaking of a self-designated shot as a data-linked shot still requires the target to be in "someone's" forward sector.

Fair enough. Again, we should compare the picture as of 2017, anything else is completely academic.