By Franz-Stefan Gady
Tokyo has ambitions to become a global supplier of military hardware.
Japan will offer Great Britain its first indigenously developed and built maritime patrol aircraft, the Kawasaki P-1, and will send two jets overseas for the first time to participate in UK’s Royal International Air Tattoo – the world’s largest military airshow – according to media reports.
The Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) will dispatch two P-1s, part of the JMSDF’s 51 Air Development Squadron, from the Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Kanagawa Prefecture on July 10, according to the Japanese Ministry of Defense. One aircraft will be on static display, whereas the second plane will perform a flight demonstration at the airshow from July 17-19.
The planes will then head to an airbase near Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti to perform tests and permit “the technical challenges when operating in tropical and desert areas,” according to Japan’s Ministry of Defense quoted by IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly. The JMSDF airbase in Djibouti houses around 200 personnel and two Kawasaki-Lockheed P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft – the P-1s predecessor – stationed in Africa in order to conduct anti-piracy operations in the region.
Read the full story at The Diplomat