Mainichi claimed that the Defense Ministry has informally decided to develop the successor to the ASDF’s aging F-2 fighters in Japan based on the judgment that the proposals for the new model submitted by Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, and Britain’s BAE do not satisfy the technical and other requirements specified by the ministry. According to the daily, the ministry dismissed Lockheed’s idea of modifying the existing F-22 to Japanese specifications on the grounds that it would be too expensive and the U.S. manufacturer was not able to provide a solid explanation on the lifting of a USG ban on exporting the fighter’s state-of-the-art stealth technology. Given that developing an indigenous fighter on its own will not be easy due to the estimated high costs and the lack of technological expertise on building jet engines, the ministry reportedly may look into the possibility of developing the model jointly with the Europeans.