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| ATD-X Shinshin |
By Paul Kallender-Umezu
TOKYO — On one level the Japanese Ministry of Defense latest budget request for the financial year starting April appears to be business as usual, as the Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) chugs along with its piecemeal procurement of 42 F-35s and decisions on the eventual replacement of its aging F-2 and F-15 fleets shelved.
Behind this, the ASDF has signaled perhaps a more fundamental force shift south to better deter threats to Japan’s long southeastern island chain, or Nansei Shoto. Into the mix, last week’s unveiling of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI)-developed X-2 Shinshin stealth fighter demonstrator hints that Japan wants to at least pitch in domestic technologies and productions for those later F-2 and F-15 replacements.
The ASDF will spend around ¥135 billion (US $1.1 billion) to purchase six F-35s and around ¥3.8 billion yen on upgrades to its F-2s, with some ¥29.4 billion yen allocated to local Japanese F-35 assemblers.
Japan opted for the F-35 in 2011 to replace its vintage F-4 Phantoms at a then-estimated cost of about US $8 billion, while opting to continuously upgrade its F-2s and F-15s to maintain air superiority over the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), according to the Defense Ministry.
If there is a big shift occurring in Japanese force posture, however, it’s south, with the ASDF doubling its number of F-15s to about 40 to Naha to form a new 9th Air Wing to fend of increasingly aggressive PLAAF probing of the Nansei Shoto, which last year provoked 441 ASDF scrambles, double that of 2011, according to JMoD.
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