Pacifist Japan is quietly arming itself to the teeth, with China in its sights
- Post-war Japan has amassed a considerable pile of armaments while flying under the radar. It already has more aircraft carriers than China – it just dumbs them down as ‘helicopter carriers’
- With all eyes on Taiwan, Tokyo’s rising military spending may be contributing to the escalating arms race in the region in more ways than one
From a very young age, I have had a fascination with aircraft. And before my swerve into finance, after years spent gluing balsa wood planes together to crash in the park, I got very serious about becoming an aeronautical engineer.
IT’S CLASSIFIED
On a visit to British Aerospace in Preston in 1979, I and a bunch of wide-eyed university students almost got into the Tornado F2 hangar where the brand new fighter jets were being assembled for the Royal Air Force. We were blocked by the engineering team because some “super-secret” AI.24 Foxhunter radar equipment was being installed. Many years later I found out that the F2s just had concrete ballast in the nose, internally nicknamed “Blue Circle” radar, until GEC-Marconi got the real thing to work.
Given that any war that might break out in Asia would likely be a sophisticated one fought at sea and in the air with aircraft carrier strike groups, destroyers and frigates, stealth submarines and naval aircraft, this puts Japan somewhat out in front when considering the air and sea power is bundled together as the Japan Self-Defence Force or JSDF.
MAVERICK? DID YOUR MOTHER NOT LIKE YOU OR SOMETHING?
Arguably, the Japanese air force is one of the most capable in the region, largely from the combination of American aircraft designs and its own formidable domestic development of aeronautical electronics. Japanese fighters are equipped with the best avionics, radars and missiles. And the older stuff, fifty or so Phantom II F-4s with hardly a scratch on them, are well looked-after and generally in good working order, so still fine for reconnaissance. These will be replaced in time with brand new F-35As – yes, they are buying both kinds, having ordered 147 aircraft in total, three times that of the UK.
To face off with potential airborne enemies, Japan has about 260 fighters, mostly re-engineered American F-15C Eagles manufactured locally by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) – the firm that built the A6M “Zero”. Japan is the only country in the world that has been allowed to do this: manufacture under licence, modify and install homegrown radar warning systems and electronic countermeasure suites.
The Japanese have also developed helmet-mounted eye-tracking missile targeting systems that let pilots lock onto targets just by looking at them. These upgraded missile systems have electronics firm NEC Corporation’s fingerprints all over them, and by contract value it is now the military’s fourth largest supplier, just ahead of computer maker Fujitsu with MHI, Melco and Kawasaki Heavy rounding off the top five.
YOU CAN BE MY WINGMAN ANYTIME
At sea the Japanese Marine Self Defence Force has over 150 vessels, including 19 submarines – some with stealth capabilities – 26 destroyers with escorts, 10 frigates with just under 350 of their own aircraft. And the coastguard, though civilian and not military, has about 450 vessels, over half of which are armed patrol ships – including some very sizable vessels.
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The Americans will be glad that Japan is nudging its defence budget for fiscal year 2021 a bit higher – to a record, in fact. The government’s reasoning is that China is poking around Japanese territory. In the new budget, military R&D expenditure is ramped up significantly to invest in technologies that are at the cutting edge of modern warfare, including crewless aircraft flown by artificial intelligence, stealthy fighters, hypersonic missiles that fly into space, and cyberspace warfare. Add into the mix more missile systems for ships – homegrown of course –and the placement of missile units on its remote islands where mainland China, Taiwan and South Korea have all sniffed around, and defence is once again a top priority of the Liberal Democratic Party.
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With the Japanese now getting their hands on F-35A and F-35B aircraft and getting to work on enhancing these next-generation designs, as well as tweaking their helicopter carriers, one wonders if they might be contributing to the escalating arms race in the region in more ways than just as a buyer of equipment. A more pressing concern still is in which direction the normally indifferent population may be led should China make a move on Taiwan or disputed islands.
Neil Newman is a thematic portfolio strategist focused on pan-Asian equity markets