Japan looking to buy more stealth fighters in 2015: Nikkei

Japan plans to seek funding to buy six F-35 stealth fighter jets in next year's budget to strengthen defense of remote southwestern islands against China, which has grown increasingly assertive at sea and in the air, the Nikkei reported.

 

The Ministry of Defense intends to ask that 124.9 billion yen ($1.21 billion) be set aside, the Nikkei said.

 

Air Self-Defense Force hopes to buy 42 of the aircraft in all to replace its fleet of aging F-4 fighters, the Nikkei said.

 

Japan has bought ten F-35s stealth fighters since 2012, but this will mark its first time buying six in a single year. The ministry will also seek 54 billion yen to buy three surveillance drones capable of extended flight, the Japanese daily said.

 

The ministry is also expected to request 58.8 billion yen for new airborne early-warning aircraft, the Nikkei added.

 

By the end of 2014, the ministry will choose between Northrop Grumman Corp's (NOC.N) E-2D and a Boeing Co (BA.N) plane, the daily said.

 

Defense-related budget requests for fiscal 2015 are also expected to include 13.7 billion yen for improving the capability of E-767 airborne warning and control system aircraft, 10 billion yen for repairing eight F-15 fighters, and 8.2 billion yen for buying surface-to-air missiles, the Nikkei added.

Japanese Air Force Intercepts 2 Russian Aircraft

Japanese fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian military aircraft identified as Tupolev Tu-142s, a reconnaissance and anti-sub version of the Tu-95 strategic bomber. 

The two Tu-142s were first detected in the Sea of Japan near the Northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, RT reported.

They then moved Southwards until they reached Tsushima Island of Nagasaki province, where they turned around.

The Russian aircraft did not violated Japanese airspace, Tokyo stressed.

The incident happened the same day Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went to Moscow for the first time in 10 years.

The Air War over Japan

The Japanese Air Force is scrambling to deal with a growing number of Chinese aircraft snooping around. In the last year Japanese aircraft have gone up 306 times to confront Chinese aircraft coming too close to Japanese air space. This was the first time Chinese intrusions exceeded Russian ones. In the previous year nearly 43 percent of the time the sorties were for Chinese aircraft. That's almost three times as many Chinese intrusions as in the previous year. Meanwhile, Russian intrusions have been declining. In 2011 Russia still accounted for 52 percent of the intrusions, and in the last year Chinese intrusions were 23 percent more frequent than the Russian ones.

 

The Japanese believe that one cause for this shift is more electronic and maritime patrol aircraft available to the Chinese and a desire to gather as much information as possible about the strongest potential foe in the area. But the main reason is the dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands near Okinawa. China and Japan both claim these uninhabited islets, which are 167 kilometers northeast of Taiwan and 426 kilometers southeast of Japan's Okinawa and have a total area of 6.3 square kilometers. Taiwan also claims the Senkakus, which were discovered by Chinese fishermen in the 16th century and taken over by Japan in 1879. They are valuable now because of the 380 kilometer economic zone nations can claim in their coastal waters. This includes fishing and possible underwater oil and gas fields.

 

In 2011, the 355 Japanese anti-intrusion sorties were up 17 percent over the previous year, while in 2010 sorties by were up 29 percent. Now they are up again. All this should be measured against Cold War activity, which peaked in 1984 at 944 interception sorties. After the Cold War ended in 1991 (when there were 488 sorties) the number of intrusions fell through the 1990s, but in the last decade the number has increased.

 

These intrusions have been increasing sharply over the last five years. Early on, the Japanese launched many aircraft for each intrusion. For example, in 2008 a Russian Tu-95 entered Japanese airspace, near an uninhabited island about 600 kilometers south of Tokyo. Although the Russian aircraft was in Japanese airspace for only about three minutes the Japanese launched 22 aircraft to intercept. This force included two AWACs aircraft and twenty fighters. It had been two years since a Russian aircraft entered Japanese airspace without permission and that explained the massive response. But as the intrusions increased the number of interceptors sent out for each declined.

 

One explanation for all the Russian activity has been Japanese diplomats pressuring the Russians to return the Kurile Islands (off northern Japan). This has caused a lot of tension and the Russians have responded with more aerial activity. This sort of thing also goes over well inside Russia. But now the Russians are cutting back.