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| ATD-X Mock Up (Wiki Info) |
By PAUL KALLENDER-UMEZU
TOKYO — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) announced it has begun assembly of a full-scale, structural-testing model of the prototype Advanced Technology Demonstrator ATD-X fighter, also called Shinshin, ahead of the prototype’s first flight scheduled in 2014.
Shinshin is being developed by the Japanese Defense Ministry’s Technical Research and Development Institute and MHI as a domestically produced, fifth-generation fighter to replace Japan’s fleet of some 49 Mitsubishi F-2 and 135 Mitsubishi F-15 fighters later in the decade. It would be an alternative to, or would supplement, the nation’s planned buy of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighters.
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