U.S. arms-sale chief discounts F-22 sale to Japan

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. government arms-sale official on Friday all but dismissed prospects for supplying the United States' premier fighter jet to Japan or Israel, even if a sale is cleared by Congress.

Designing an export version of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) radar-evading F-22 Raptor could cost more than $1 billion and be "prohibitively expensive" for any would-be foreign buyer, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, head of the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

"If (export) were to be considered, which it's not, it essentially would have to be redesigned, rebuilt, retested and then go into production," Kohler, who oversees government-to-government arms sales, told Reuters in a brief interview.

The issue matters to Lockheed and its F-22 partners -- Boeing Co. (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and United Technologies Corp.'s (UTX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Pratt & Whitney unit -- because overseas sales could extend the production line beyond 2011, when the last of the 183 Raptors currently planned is due to be sent to the U.S. Air Force.

Any redesign, Kohler said, would require degrading the aircraft's capabilities and making them tamper-proof to keep the technology exclusive -- a process he said would take years.

"This airplane was built to give us an edge way into the future, and that's why it's not exportable."

Japanese military officials are eyeing the F-22, the U.S. Air Force's primary air superiority fighter, as part of their response to growing regional missile threats, among other things.

The first F-22 overseas deployment was to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, this year. Twelve are still in the region. The aircraft goes for $136 million per copy, not including development costs.