Mitsubishi T-2

T-2
Mitsubishi T-2 at MCAS Iwakuni
Role	Trainer
Manufacturer	Mitsubishi
Designer	Dr. Kenji Ikeda
First flight	20 July 1971
Introduction	1975
Retired	March 2006
Primary user	Japan Air Self-Defense Force
Number built	90
Variants	Mitsubishi F-1

The Mitsubishi T-2 was a jet trainer aircraft used by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. By March 2006, all T-2s had been retired. The F-2 succeeded the T-2 for training mission.

Post-World War II rendered Japan without a modern jet fighter for defensive purposes. Two decades after World War II had concluded, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) began to consider the development of a supersonic jet tentatively named "T-X."

Japan had found that the subsonic Fuji T-1 jet trainer did not adequately prepare trainee pilots for more complex and difficultly handling front line Mach 2 fighters such as the Lockheed F-104J Starfighter and McDonnell Douglas F-4EJ Phantom and so, in 1964-65, began studies for a new trainer, the T-X, which it was hoped would also form the basis for a future single-seat attack aircraft, the SF-X.

Consideration was also given to acquiring existing foreign aircraft instead of developing a new aircraft, with the United States offering the Northrop T-38 Talon, and the Anglo/FrenchSEPECAT consortium offering the SEPECAT Jaguar as a trainer and single-seat fighter. Japan considered both aircraft carefully, and attempted to negotiate licensed production of the Jaguar, but these plans failed, possibly due to nationalism and an issue with the Imperial family, or more prosaically, due to the high royalty payments demanded by SEPECAT. In the end, Japan decided to manufacture its own design, which, produced to meet similar requirements, would closely resemble the Jaguar.

...
Wikipedia