With China’s growing might in the region causing Japan to shed its reluctance to buy weapons that are offensive in nature, arms manufacturers in the U.S. sense a major opportunity.
There are 42 U.S. companies exhibiting products and capabilities at the ongoing event, a substantial increase from 26 companies that attended the previous edition. “The U.S. is the largest international group at the event,” says Tom Kallman. President & CEO at Kallman Worldwide. “We are second only to the Japanese in terms of numbers. The U.S. also has a very significant VIP delegation at the event.”
Unlike some other countries where their primary focus is sales, U.S. companies are looking to do more in Japan. As Japan has a strong and growing indigenous defence industry, U.S. firms believe their chances of partnering with their Japanese counterparts for joint ventures and technology transfer projects are high. The Asian country has traditionally relied on U.S. for missile defence as well for offensive capabilities. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the U.S. provided 97 percent of Japan’s defense equipment imports from 2016-2020.
Japan plans to develop its own weapons, including advanced fighter jets, hypersonic missiles, and armed drones, and will not shut its doors to other weapon makers. Industry analysts believe that the U.S. companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman will continue to be the top supplier of arms the country for the foreseeable future, mainly because of the close military ties the two countries share and for military interoperability reasons.
Japan plans to buy Lockheed Martin’s Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, which has arrange of about 900 kilometers (560 miles), and launch them from modified F-15s. The country is also planning to acquire eight more F-35Bs, which are capable of short takeoffs and vertical landing on ships, at a cost of US$1.08 billion; the deal is part of a larger package of 65 F-35s it plans to acquire before 2027. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman will also provide technical support for Japan’s development of the Mitsubishi F-X sixth-generation stealth fighter next-generation fighter for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF); the jet will replace the F-2 in the next decade.
In February, Raytheon Intelligence & Space was awarded a foreign military sales contract
by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Traffic Management Systems Program Office (PMA-213) to deliver the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS) to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. The system will be deployed on the JS Izumo, the JMSDF’s carrier. The country also plans to bulk-order Raytheon-made Tomahawk Block IV land attack missiles by March 2024.
In October last year, the U.S. approved a US$450 million Foreign Military Sale of Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) Block I missiles and related equipment to Japan. Raytheon Missiles and Defense (RMD), the principal contractor, will assemble the missiles while Aerojet Rocketdyne will manufacture their propulsion systems.
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