Fighter and Surveillance UAVs to be Developed by Japan

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The Japanese government is aiming to develop a prototype drone fighter jet in two decades. In order to reach their goal they’ve called some major players in the private sector for help. The planned technology will focus on weapons, communications and lasers, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The military technology plan calls for first developing an unmanned surveillance aircraft in the next decade and then an unmanned fighter jet 10 years later, the document showed.

The plan will be announced this month when the Defence Ministry also unveils its request for a record budget of 5.16 trillion yen ($51 billion) for fiscal 2017. Some government officials that are involved in the details of the matter explained that there are quite a lot of reasons for the enormous sum, among them: the rising tension in the East China Sea and North Korea steps up its missile threat.

According to Reuters, a government source announced that the defence ministry’s request covers also the 100 billion yen cost to upgrade Japan’s PAC-3 missile defence system.

Other sources said that such an upgrade would roughly double the missile system’s range to more than 30 km (19 miles). The budget proposal also includes the cost of production for the Block IIA version of the Standard Missile-3 system being jointly developed with the United States to shoot down missiles at higher altitudes.

The ministry will also allocate budget funds to acquire an upgraded version of the F-35 stealth fighter, made by U.S. company Lockheed Martin Corp.