Japan is considering building its own fighter jets after years of playing second fiddle in a US construction partnership, a report said yesterday, in a move likely to stoke fears of its military resurgence among Asian neighbors.
Japan’s attempt in the 1980s to build its first purely domestic fighters since World War II faced US resistance and resulted in joint US-Japanese development and production of the F-2, the Nikkei Shimbun said.
However, joint F-2 production ended more than two years ago and the last of the fighters are due to be retired from Japan’s air defense force in about 2028, it added.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense plans to seek about ￥40 billion (US$387 million) in state funding for the next fiscal year, which starts in April next year, to test experimental engines and radar-dodging stealth airframe designs for a purely Japanese fighter, the report said.
According to its medium-term defense program, the Tokyo government will decide by the 2018 financial year whether to go ahead with the all-Japanese fighter project.
There is a growing need for Japan to develop a long-haul, highly stealthy fighter jet in the face of China’s increasing assertiveness in the East China Sea, where the two countries are locked in a dispute over a group of Tokyo-controlled islands, the Nikkei said.
Last month, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet proclaimed the right to go into battle in defense of allies — in a highly controversial shift in the nation’s post-war pacifist stance.
Japan denies its intent is anything other than defensive.
The defense ministry started work four years ago on the so-called Advanced Technology Demonstrator-X (ATD-X) plane to explore the project’s feasibility by studying lightweight airframe designs and built-in missile-firing mechanisms, the Nikkei said.
Japan is is due to start testing experimental engines for the ATD-X in January next year and the stealth airframe designs in April, the report said.
The ministry hopes to develop the actual engines for the project in cooperation with IHI, Mitsubishi Heavy and other defense contractors in about five years.
Developing a purely domestic fighter is estimated to cost a ￥500 billion to ￥800 billion, the report said.
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