{"id":4470,"date":"2016-09-01T13:05:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T10:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5917.temp.domains\/~iriacom\/\/news\/?p=4470"},"modified":"2023-07-08T08:36:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T05:36:17","slug":"japan-seeks-massive-defense-budget-to-counter-north-korea-china-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/japan-seeks-massive-defense-budget-to-counter-north-korea-china-moves\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan seeks massive defense budget to counter North Korea, China moves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan’s military seeks record spending of US$51 billion to counter North Korea, China moves<\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan’s defense ministry requested a record budget of US$51 billion for fiscal year 2017\u00a0in the wake of increasing tensions from North Korea and China.<\/p>\n

Japan seeks funds for an anti-ship missile system to defend its islands amid growing ballistic missile threat from North Korea and China\u2019s assertive moves in the East China Sea.<\/p>\n

If approved, the hike of 2.3 percent will take the Japan’s defense budget to 5.17 trillion yen (US$51.47 billion) in the year starting April 1, for a fifth consecutive increase as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bolsters Japan’s military.<\/p>\n

One security analyst, however, deems the spending was insufficient as “The security environment surrounding Japan is severe, due to neighboring North Korea and China,” according to Takashi Kawakami, a security expert at Japan’s Takushoku University.<\/p>\n

Japan’s Defense seeks stealth fighters, drones and submarines<\/span><\/h3>\n

Japan aims to develop a prototype drone fighter jet in two decades with private sector help in a technology strategy that focuses on weapons communications and lasers, according to Reuters report<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Defense officials want 95 billion yen next year to buy six Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters<\/a><\/span>, and a combined 92 billion for four Boeing Co (BA.N) and Bell Helicopter<\/a><\/span> (TXT.N) V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and six Boeing Chinook twin-rotor helicopters<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Japan’s Self-Defense<\/a><\/span> also wants 11 BAE Systems (BAES.L) AAV7 amphibious assault craft<\/a><\/span>, and two long-range Kawasaki Heavy Industries (7012.T) C-2 military cargo jets.<\/p>\n

Other buys will include a Northrop Grumman (NOC.N) unmanned Global Hawk<\/a><\/span> surveillance drone and a new larger-class diesel-electric submarine designed by Mitsubishi Heavy and Kawasaki Heavy.<\/p>\n

The ministry also plans to create a mobile amphibious unit with more than 2,000 troops at a base in Nagasaki prefecture.<\/p>\n

The proposed budget calls for Japan to develop land-to-ship missiles as well as air-to-ship missiles<\/span><\/a> for patrol planes. The new land-to-ship missile system is expected to have a range of 300 kilometers (190 miles), far enough to reach the vicinity of the disputed islands, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported earlier in August.<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/a>

Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) fire a 120mm mortar during a live fire exercise at the foot of Mount Fuji in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, on Aug. 25, 2016. Photo: Tomohiro Ohsumi\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Japan’s biggest upgrades<\/span><\/h3>\n

The single biggest expenditure is 99 billion yen ($970 million) to upgrade Japan’s warhead-killing Patriot batteries, a last line of defense against missile strikes.<\/p>\n

The improvements will double their range to around 30 km (19 miles) and sharpen targeting to hit arriving ballistic warheads.<\/p>\n

They will take five years to complete, with the first four enhanced Patriots expected to be ready for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n

Japan’s biggest defense contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) (7011.T) will upgrade the PAC-3s under license from Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters last month.<\/p>\n

The budget request also includes funding to improve Aegis destroyers that are Japan’s first line of defense against ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A Japanese soldier walks past a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile launcher deployed at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japan’s military seeks record spending of US$51 billion to counter North Korea, China moves Japan’s defense ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Japan seeks massive defense budget to counter North Korea, China moves http:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-1a6","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[124,1],"tags":[137,45,737,6,46,5,96,113],"class_list":["post-4470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-news","tag-asia","tag-china","tag-chinook","tag-defense","tag-japan","tag-military","tag-north-korea","tag-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/japan_forces_training.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-1a6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4470"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16369,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4470\/revisions\/16369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}