Japanese military-aircraft procurement plans face chaos because of pending cutbacks in defence expenditure within the next five-year mid-term plan.
The Japan Defence Agency (JDA) is faced with having to make critical decisions on future acquisition priorities before the end of the current five-year plan in 2000. Included in these decisions are those for three new aircraft programmes, two of which are competing for large-scale funding between fiscal years 2001 and 2005.
At the top of the Japan Air-Self Defence Force's (JASDF) list of procurement priorities is an in-flight-refuelling tanker and new transport aircraft. At the same time, the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) is seeking funding for a replacement maritime-patrol aircraft (MPA).
In addition to having to accommodate the competing individual requirements of the two services, the JDA is being lobbied strongly by local contractors for more work. Japan's principal aerospace manufacturers are beginning to face a shortfall in production and fear that the military will opt for cheaper, off-the shelf, foreign solutions .
The more immediate requirement is for tanker aircraft, initial funding for which is being requested in the next fiscal-year (1998) budget. It will almost certainly involve buying an overseas design. The leading candidate is thought to be Boeing's proposed multi-role tanker/transport 767, with local industrial involvement likely to be confined to fitting out the tanker, and after-sales support.
The JASDF is also pushing for separate funding of a new mid-sized transport to replace its 30 Kawasaki C-1s. The C-X requirement is for a larger, longer-range, aircraft than the C-1, to support the overseas deployment of Japanese peace-keeping forces.
Officials say that the preferred choice is for a turbofan-powered aircraft, sized between the Lockheed Martin C-130J and McDonnell Douglas C-17, to be offered to the JASDF.
Kawasaki is proposing an indigenous design, but critics argue that development costs would be prohibitively high, given the limited number of aircraft required and Japan's constitutional ban on the export of military goods.
An alternative under study is to combine elements of the C-X design with the JMSDF's planned MPA, larger numbers of which are need to replace its 100 Kawasaki/ Lockheed Martin P-3Cs .
"If there were a lot of commonality, it would produce a major saving," says a JDA official.
The MPA requirement also calls for a four-engined turbofan-powered aircraft.
Structurally, however, the two would be different, with the JMSDF wanting a low-wing design, whereas the JASDF is looking at a high wing, wide fuselage and rear loading-ramp.
Source: Flight International
