Japan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

hijiki

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The maritime division of Malaysia's T7 Global Berhad and Mitsui signed an MoU on construction of patrol boats and warships for the Vietnamese Coast Guard and Vietnamese Navy.

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According to an article released on September 4 on defense outlet IHS Jane's, Japan’s Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and the maritime division of T7 Global Berhad, an investment holding group based in Malaysia, have entered an agreement to cooperate on building ships for the Vietnam People’s Navy (VPN) and Vietnam Coast Guard (VCG).

The new agreement was signed in late August and announced in early September.

In a filing to the Bursa Malaysia stock exchange, T7 Global said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by T7 Marine – its wholly owned subsidiary – and focuses on collaboration with Mitsui across “various activities and to explore new business opportunities to supply ships” to the VPN and VCG.

According to the MoU, the two companies will leverage each other’s experience and expertise in exploring shipbuilding opportunities in Vietnam and look to secure new business contracts in the Southeast Asian country. The MoU runs for three years, with an option to extend.

The MoU offered no additional details about the companies’ joint engagement in Vietnam.

Mitsui is one of Japan’s biggest naval shipbuilders. The company’s experience and capabilities include the construction of destroyers, survey ships, patrol vessels, and landing platform docks for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF).

In June 2019 Mitsui unveiled its design proposal to fulfil a new JMSDF programme to procure 12 offshore patrol vessels, and in January the company launched the third Hibiki-class ocean surveillance ship for the JMSDF. The first two ships in the class entered service in the early 1990s.

In July, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed with Vietnam Government an agreement to provide Japanese ODA loans of 36,6 billion yen (USD 348 million) for the Maritime Security and Safety Capacity Improvement Project.

The 0.1% loan spans a period of 40 years with first payments due 10 years from now. The total cost of the shipbuilding program will amount to 42,5 billion yen (USD 400 million).

Within the framework of the project, VCG will be financially supported to build 6 patrol vessels to strengthen law enforcement and maritime rescue operations, ensuring security, maritime safety and freedom of navigation in Vietnam, Vietnamnet newspaper reported.

According to Naval News, construction of the vessels is set to begin next year, with the delivery of the sixth and final ship to VCG due in October 2025.

Bien Dong Sea, internationally known as South China Sea, is severely affected by natural disasters, which pose a high risk of maritime accidents, JICA said.

Vietnam has a coastline stretching from north to south, and in recent years smuggling, illegal fishing and the risk of terrorism have increased, and so strengthening maritime capability and safety is one of Vietnam’s key tasks.

The project contributes to Goals 14 and 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and contributes to the implementation of the free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Upon completion of the contract, the Vietnam Coast Guard will be the largest operator of the vessels within Southeast Asia.

Bien Dong Sea (or East Sea) borders Vietnam in the east and the south. Vietnamese people have long called this body of water “Bien Dong” because it is east of the country.

These news came as China has been ramping up its aggressive behavior in the waters since the start of this year.
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HMAS Hobart and HMAS Sirius of the Australian Royal Navy conducted joint-training with JS Kaga and JS Ikazuchi in the South China Sea from September 13th to the 17th.
kagahobartsiriusikazuchi.jpg

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4ships.jpg





HMS Argyll of the British Royal Navy conducted joint-training with JS Oonami in the north western part of the Arabian Sea on August 29th.
argylloonami.jpg

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INS Chennei, INS Tarkash, and INS Deepak of the Indian Navy conducted Exercise JIMEX with JS Kaga and JS Ikazuchi in the northern Arabian Sea from September 26th to September 28th.
jimex1.jpg


jimex2.jpg

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hijiki

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I guess this sale is for the 30DX project. Seems be shaping up to be a decent little ship (SSM-2, SeaRAM and domestic SAM).

It might be that those 51 Block 2 missiles are also for existing ships. It takes a year or so for FMS approval to occur. So the payment for those 51 missiles were likely already paid out in this year's or last year's defense budget as part of "ship service extension" or "full round upgrade" or some term like that for any given ship. Every year, a handful of ships got through that process. Block 2s look like quite a step up over Block 1 so probably would like to get more of those for not just new ships but also for existing ships. The first pair of 30DX are scheduled to enter service in March 2022 so all of the 51 approved wouldn't be need to be ready quite yet the 30DX. Perhaps some more of them will be ordered next year. Although if the FMS was for the recent budget request for next year, then that would be an example of a fast budget request.
 

hijiki

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A C-2 converted into an ELINT varient, the RC-2 in 2018

It entered service with the JASDF a few days ago, on October 1st.
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The development of a new stand-off electronic warfare aircraft was included in the budget request for next year.
standoffc2.jpg




Also in the budget request theres a part says that the bow of the Izumo-class ships will be changed into a square shape in order to safely carry out F-35B operations.
Izumocarrier2.jpg



Since then some unofficial speculated images based on that description came out such as this one.
Izumocarrier.jpg
 

hijiki

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Some videos of the JASDF F-35As taking off flying around and landing at Misawa Airbase in 2020.

7 F-35As on January 16th.

8 on February 7th

7 on April 17th

3 in the early/midday and same or different 3 later on July 29th

5 on September 8th

4 on September 28th
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4 on October 5th
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There are currently 17* F-35As deployed at Misawa on 運用試験 or in straight English translation "operational testing" (while in English materials, they may be called as "IOC" for "Initial Operation Capability"). About 20 is planned by Spring next year. 4 more F-35As are included in the defense budget request for next fiscal year and MoD is looking into deploying them at a base other than Misawa. After completing "operational testing" the next stage task is scrambling. MoD says that in principal, there is no limitation as to which air base the F-35As could be deployed at. But it is thought that they'll go to where non-upgraded F-15Js are currently at, taking their place. The F-15Js that are at Naha** are continually upgraded models. F-35Bs are planned to enter service in 2024.
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*There would have been 18 rather than 17 but their was the one accident in April 2019 in which an F-35A nose dived into the sea killing the veteran pilot.
**There are currently 40 F-15Js there. If I remember correctly, it used to be 20 but it got doubled to 40 in 2016.
 

Deino

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...

Also in the budget request theres a part says that the bow of the Izumo-class ships will be changed into a square shape in order to safely carry out F-35B operations.
Izumocarrier2.jpg



Since then some unofficial speculated images based on that description came out such as this one.
Izumocarrier.jpg


Not sure if already posted:

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hijiki

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Not sure if already posted:

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The post I made comes from the defense budget request released on Sept 30th. In it there is only a description about changing the bow into a square shape. It sort of implies no ski-jump.

So technically an affirmative that there will be no ski-jump hasn't been posted yet.

Here's the text from the little image that is from the defense budge request so that it could be copy/pasted into translation to ease cross-checking.

「いずも」型護衛艦の改修(231億円)
飛行甲板上の耐熱塗装等に加え、F-35Bを安全に運用す
るため、艦首形状を四角形に変更

Here's the full defense budget request.
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