Japan plans to purchase state-of- art F-22A stealth fighters and F-15FX fighters from the United States in a process starting fiscal 2009, Kyodo News reported on Sunday.

The procurement, which will probably cost 1 trillion yen (about 8.55 billion U.S. dollars), is aimed at strengthening the Air Self- Defense Force (ASDF)'s capabilities and improving its interoperability with the U.S. Air Force, Kyodo quoted sources as saying.

The Japanese Defense Ministry believes that the U.S. export ban on F-22A will be lifted sooner or later and is considering to buy the F-15FX in the first step of the procurement.

In fiscal 2008, the ASDF's 91 aging F-4EJ fighter jets will retire.

The Japanese defense ministry has taken FA-18, F-35, Eurofighter and Rafale into consideration, but in the end decided to buy F-22A and F-15FX because of their high performance, said the sources.

Source: Xinhua