Via Ashai.
Japan's new five-year Mid-Term Defense Program includes outlays for 17 new Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and three Global Hawk surveillance drones to help it respond to China's growing presence in the East China Sea.The Japanese are definitely gearing up to become the counterweight to Chinese aggression.
The plan, revealed Dec. 13, starts in fiscal 2014. It is expected to be approved in a Cabinet meeting on Dec. 17 along with the National Defense Program Guidelines.
The government plans to use the new aircraft to heighten its capabilities to protect remote islands and to monitor China's activities in waters and airspace near the disputed Senkaku Islands.
It also said it will purchase 52 amphibious vehicles for the Ground Self-Defense Force for use in landing operations. The amphibious vehicles will be the same as those used by the U.S. Marine Corps. The plan also calls for reducing the number of GSDF tanks and replacing them with 99 eight-wheeled maneuver combat vehicles that have higher running capabilities than tanks.
Further spending will include 28 F-35 Lightning fighter jets for the Air Self-Defense Force, as well as four new early-warning aircraft and three new air-refueling and transportation aircraft.
Since the government put the Senkaku Islands under state ownership in September 2012, Chinese government's vessels have repeatedly intruded into Japanese territorial waters around the islands, heightening tensions between the two countries.
The Defense Ministry decided it was paramount to establish amphibious troops that will be able to take back islands in the event they are invaded and occupied.
With the introduction of the 17 Ospreys and 52 amphibious vehicles, the ministry believes the SDF will have landing capabilities comparable to those of the U.S. Marine Corps.
And they're putting their money where their mouth is.
Not just rhetoric on this, they're buying 52 AAVs, 17 MV-22s, Global Hawks, Early Warning Aircraft, Refuelers and finally 28 F-35s.
The number of F-35s should chill that planes supporters...its far fewer than the number that had been bandied about, but the rest of the buy says it all.
The Japanese are expecting a fight. And they're going to be prepared.
Sidenote: If the US Marine Corps had operated with a bit more speed, been alot more decisive then we could have a new standard of amphibious tractor on the books with our allies buying the same, therefore reducing everyones costs. Whether that was the Marine Personnel Carrier, Amphibious Combat Vehicle or even a major upgrade of the AAV, its obvious that an opportunity was lost because of leaderships lust for the F-35.
