Mitsubishi is a brand name typically known for vehicles such as its the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV hybrid SUV. But there's also the automaker's former parent company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, whose products include both civilian and military aircraft. Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing license out their designs to oversea countries, so if foreign fighter jets look familiar, that's why. The F-2 Support Fighter is one such licensed design, based on General Dynamics' F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet, a lightweight fighter conceived in the 1970s.

Mistubishi started developing the F-2 -- dubbed the "Viper Zero" as an homage to both the "Viper" name American crews gave F-16s and the Japanese "Zero" planes Mitsubishi made during World War II -- in the late '80s. By 1995, Mitsubishi had a working prototype in the air, and it delivered the first production model to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force in 2000. Mitsubishi built the F-2 to have a larger wing area than the F16 by 25% and was the first fighter jet equipped with an Active Electronically Scanned Array radar, a system that gives the pilot better situational awareness and is commonly found in fighters today.

The larger wing area gives the Viper Zero more room for storing fuel than the F-16 as well as two additional stations for storing missiles or bombs. It's suited for both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, but Japan favors its air-to-ground capabilities as a means of defending its sea lanes.