Japanese F-2

[mmx1]

that's pretty spendy for a plane with roughly the same performance capabilities. It seems odd to me that we didn't just build them and sell them. Japan would have gotten cheaper fighters, and we would have gotten more than 40% of the revenue and workload.

Japan has always insisted building everything in-house, from their tanks to their aircraft. They pay a premium for it as their per/unit costs are ridiculous, but they have all the capacity to build up in a hurry if the Chinese wake up one day and decide to get payback.