Japan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Scratch

Captain
Japan is adjusting it's defense policy. They are moving away troops from the northern part of the country were the GSDF were to defend a soviet invasion.
Thos troops are then moved to the south of the country were Japan sees new hotspots emerging.
In the same token, Japan is also shifting focus from land to naval & possibly air forces. The # of subs will increase from 16 to 22. There might also be new air & sea units making the JSDF more mobile and expeditionary.

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Japan Announces Defense Policy to Counter China
By MARTIN FACKLER - Published: December 16, 2010

TOKYO — Japan announced a new defense policy on Friday that will respond to China’s rising military might by building more submarines and other mobile forces capable of defending Japan’s southernmost islands.
The new National Defense Program Guidelines are the biggest step yet in a decade-long shift away from cold war-era deployments of heavy tank and artillery units on the northern island of Hokkaido — to counter a now-vanished Soviet threat — and toward bolstering Japanese forces in the southern islands around Okinawa, where China’s navy has become a growing presence.
[...]
The new policy called for increasing the number of Japan’s submarines to 22 from the current 16, while reducing the number of tanks by a third to about 400. It also called for creating more mobile forces, which analysts have said could include creating new air and seaborne units that could quickly move to defend remote islands.
[...]
The guidelines also called for reconsidering Japan’s self-imposed ban on the export of weapons, a step that would make it easier for Japan to join other nations, and particularly the United States, in the joint development of expensive new weapons systems.
Japan has already joined the United States in developing new anti-missile systems. Friday’s guidelines called for deploying more Patriot interceptor missiles to shoot down ballistic missiles from North Korea, which has been developing missiles and nuclear weapons. ...
 

Sirf_palot

New Member
Quick question, does Article 9 prevent their jets from having Air to Ground armaments? Such as Mavericks and GBUs for close air support?
 

Mr T

Senior Member
Quick question, does Article 9 prevent their jets from having Air to Ground armaments? Such as Mavericks and GBUs for close air support?

Nope, the JASDF carries air-to-ground weapons. Article 9 wouldn't stop weapons like that being carried because they could be used to defend Japanese territory.
 

Ambivalent

Junior Member
Rise from your grave ancient thread! There's some rumours afoot!

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If this information is correct then not only is this a major development for reviving Mitsubishi military sectors which are nearly completely atrophied, but also the JASDF who know must structure their air force without the F-22 or F-35, F-X competition (why bother procuring a new type of fighter when F-2 production has resumed) and the F-35 program as a whole (if a major potential buyer like Japan is dropping out then what does that mean for other countries considering the F-35?)

Alternatives are discussed when budgets are tight.
The US Congress' budget deficit committee is forcing the USAF to take a look at buying fewer F-35's and resuming purchase of new build F-16's.
The US Navy is trying very hard to force the USMC to buy fewer F-35B's and instead buy F/A-18 E/F's, for three reasons. Number one, the F-35B just does not integrate into CVN operations (USMC squadrons are essential to fill out carrier air wings with the Navy's "fighter gap", two, the USN wants the USMC to maintain a heavy strike capability that will be lost with an all F-35B fleet and number three, the F/A-18 is a comparative bargain.
 

johnboy

New Member
Rising costs can't have much to do with this choice, not really. The F-2 is one of the most cost-ineffective fighters around, and the Japanese were clearly willing to pay for the extremely expensive F-22 if they got rights to build some of them at home (and the tech transfer that goes with that). I think this has a lot more to do with mission priority (the Japanese need a newer, better air superiority plane, not a newer better strike plane) and spending those defense dollars at home. Part of the reason why the F-2 is so expensive is because the Japanese treat it like an industrial welfare program.
 

In4ser

Junior Member
Japan, U.S. reach confidentiality accord on F-35 fighters
Jan 18 03:17 AM US/Eastern

TOKYO, Jan. 18 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Japan and the United States have reached a confidentiality accord on the radar-evading stealth F-35 fighter jet, one of the strong candidates for the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force's main next- generation fighter, Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Tuesday.
Maehara said he and U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos exchanged documents on the security of confidential information on the F-35 joint strike fighter system, which involves an international consortium of developers from such countries as the United States and Britain.

The Japanese government has earmarked about 600 million yen as research costs on the F-35 system in its fiscal 2011 budget plan. It plans to secure a procurement budget for the nation's next-generation fighter in fiscal 2012.

Other candidates include the Eurofighter from Europe and the F/A-18 from the United States.

Japan was scheduled to pick a new model to succeed the aging F-4 planes by spring 2008, but this was put off partly due to a delay in the development of the F-35 fighters.

Another factor was the U.S. export ban on its F-22 fighter, which has stealth capability to escape radar detection and which Japan was initially looking into acquiring.
 
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johnboy

New Member
On the subject of Japanese and Chinese military news, I've updated my
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website to 13 sections, which puts it well past the halfway mark towards being complete. I've also got a special report on the J-20.
 

Ambivalent

Junior Member
Interesting Powerpoint from Lockheed-Martin on the F-35. According to the slide labeled "Air to Air Combat Performance" the F-35 has a higher instantaneous and sustained g and better transonic acceleration than the F-16C. If true, and I believe it to be true, the F-35 will be a stellar dogfighter.

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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Sigh too much wild blue not enough Ground pounding.
This is a artical i found on soldier systems Daily blog it's a few weeks old but still

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before they build the Giant Robots they have too get the troops all wired up.
I find the lack of ballistic protection in the helmet and Almost interceptor cut of the armor questionable but a re do of the type89 or replacement is some thing of a good thing.
 

Roger604

Senior Member
Japan is escalating its dispute with China over Diaoyutai as it scrambled jets to intercept Chinese Y-8 flying in East China Sea, alleging that the Y-8 flew too close to Diaoyutai (55 km away in fact, and the islands themselves are not even 1 km in length).

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