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F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

On July 9, 2020 the US State Department made a determination approving a Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Japan of one hundred five (105) F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft and related equipment for an estimated cost of $23.11 billion. The Government of Japan has requested to buy sixty-three (63) F-35A Conventional Take­Off and Landing (CTOL) aircraft, forty-two (42) F-35B Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft, and one hundred ten (110) Pratt and Whitney F135 engines (includes 5 spares). Also included are Electronic Warfare Systems; Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence/Communications, Navigation and Identification; Autonomic Logistics Global Support System, Autonomic Logistics Information System; Flight Mission Trainer; Weapons Employment Capability, and other Subsystems, Features, and Capabilities; F-35 unique infrared flares; reprogramming center access and F-35 Performance Based Logistics; software development/integration; flight test instrumentation; aircraft ferry and tanker support; spare and repair parts; support equipment, tools and test equipment; technical data and publications; personnel training and training equipment; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support services; and other related elements of logistics support.

This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a major ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Asia-Pacific region. It is vital to U.S. national interest to assist Japan in developing and maintaining a strong and effective self-defense capability. The proposed sale of aircraft and support will augment Japan's operational aircraft inventory and enhance its air-to-air and air-to-ground self-defense capability. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force's F-4 aircraft are being decommissioned as F-35s are added to the inventory. Japan will have no difficulty absorbing these aircraft into its armed forces. The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The prime contractors will be Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, Texas; and Pratt and Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, Connecticut. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

By November 2018 Japan was preparing to order another 100 F-35 stealth fighters to replace some aging F-15s. A single F-35 costs more than 10 billion yen ($90 million), meaning the additional order would exceed 1 trillion yen. Japan's government planned to approve the purchase when it adopts new National Defense Program Guidelines at a cabinet meeting in mid-December 2018. It will also include the F-35 order in its medium-term defense program, which covers fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2023. The government wants to obtain 42 F-35s as successors to its F-4s by fiscal 2024.

At present, Japan deploys about 200 F-15s, roughly half of which cannot be upgraded. The Defense Ministry wants to replace the planes that cannot be upgraded with the 100 F-35s, while enhancing and retaining the remaining F-15s.

The 42 fighters Japan originally bought were all F-35As, the conventional takeoff and landing variant. The additional 100 planes would include both the F-35A and F-35B, which is capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings. The new buy would include some 42 F-35B VSTOL aircraft for basing at sea. This would provide squadrons of 16 aircraft for each of the two Izumos, as well as another ten aircraft for shoreside training and maintenance float. To accommodate the F-35Bs, the government intends to revamp the Maritime Self-Defense Force's JS Izumo helicopter carrier to host the fighters. By some estimates, China's new CVA002 and CVN003 aircraft carriers might carry as many as 24 J-31 stealth fighters, along with several dozen other aircraft.

On 19 December 2011 the Japan Ministry of Defense announced its selection of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II as the Japan Air Self Defense Force’s (JASDF) next generation fighter aircraft, following the F-X competitive bid process. The F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant (CTOL) was offered by the United States government with participation from Lockheed Martin. This variant will not enter American service prior to 2018 The initial contract will be for four jets in Japan Fiscal Year 2012, which begins April 1, 2012. A total of 42 aircraft [some reports had previously stated 48 aircraft] are part of the initial purchase.

The initial contract will be for four jets in Japan Fiscal Year 2012, which began April 1, 2012. "The government shall acquire 42 units of the F-35A after fiscal 2012 in order to replenish and to modernise the current fleet of fighters held by the Air Self-Defense Force", the Japanese government confirmed in a statement. The Japanese F-35 deal had an estimated value of over $4bn and saw the highly-advanced multirole fighter succeed where the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet - both previously in the running to win the contract - had now failed.

Japan required significant a work-share for its commitment to buy the F-35. Although he details were initially unclear, it seemed probable that Japan would establish its own final assembly line, and would manufacture some components and subcomponents for its F-35s. Indded, Japan would receive its first four F-35As from Lockheed’s Fort Worth factory, with the remaining 38 to be produced under licence by Mitsubishi at Nagoya. It seemd probable that Tokyo would seek to build more F-35As using this line.

As of 2014 the Japanese defense ministry was considering upgrading the F-15J fighters under its Mid-term Defense Program. Around 100 of the aircraft's radar systems are not able to be modified, and Tokyo may purchase additional F-35s to replace them. This will eventually result i in Japan to having at least 142 F-35 stealth fighters.

The Japanese government regards a fleet of F-35As and F-35Bs as the core fighter jets of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. It plans to have a total of 147 such aircraft by around 2030. Under the mid-term defense program based on National Defense Program Guidelines adopted December 2018, Japan planne to purchase 27 F35A fighters in five years. Each aircraft costs more than 100 million dollars. The government planned to expand the F-35A fleet to 105, with a total budget estimated at more than nine billion dollars. Japan's pair of Izumo-class "destroyers", which will effectively function as aircraft carriers, will support a total of 42 F-35Bs in the future [both afloat and ashore].

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force began deploying the F-35A aircraft at its Misawa base in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, in January 2018. By March 2019, a total of 13 F-35As were deployed. Some were imported from the United States, while others were assembled in Japan.

Japan's Defense Ministry said the crash 09 April 2019 of an F-35A fighter jet marked the first ever confirmed crash of this type of aircraft. The aircraft that crashed was the first one assembled in Japan at a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plant in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan. An F-35B aircraft of the US Marine Corps crashed in South Carolina during training in September 2018.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on 28 May 2019, hosted Trump on the deck of the JS Kaga, one of Japan’s helicopter carriers that will soon be converted to carry a short takeoff/vertical landing variant of the American-made F-35 supersonic stealth jet fighter. Trump said Japan’s purchase of an 105 additional F-35 Lightning II jets (each with a price tag of around $100 million) “will help our nations defend against a range of complex threats in the region and far beyond.” This "105 additional" does not appear to reflect any new acquisition bevond that already planned. Abe accompanied Trump for a round of golf at a private course outside Tokyo and sat alongside him on the final day of a sumo wrestling tournament where the president awarded a extremely large trophy, which he said he had personally purchased, to the champion wrestler.

Japanese Minister of Defence Takeshi Iwaya announced that the crash of a Japan Air Self-Defence Force’s (ASDF) F-35A stealth fighter, which occurred on 09 April 2019, was probably caused by the pilot’s "spatial disorientation" rather than technical problems with the plane. "We believe it highly likely the pilot was suffering from vertigo or spatial disorientation and wasn’t aware of his condition", Iwaya said during a press conference on10 June 2019. He also remarked that spatial disorientation “can affect any pilot regardless of their experience”, adding that the defence ministry will now increase vertigo training for combat pilots, and perform “special inspections” of the remaining 12 F-35A aircraft stationed at the Misawa Air Base.

In mid-2019 Tokyo applied to Washington for shifting from an user to a full partner in the F-35 fighter jet program. Japan, by making the request at such a moment, aimed to seek greater interests for itself while the US and Turkey were at loggerheads, but Washington declined the Japanese request. The F-35 joint program office decided that only the first group of F-35 investors were entitled to partnership, and the application for partnership ended on July 15, 2002. If Japan created such a precedent, other US allies like the ROK and Israel might make similar requests, which would put Washington in a dilemma.

There are two levels of member states to the F-35 program, the first level comprising those joining the program from the beginning, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Holland, Norway, Turkey, the UK and others. These countries assign representatives to the joint program office and constitute a link in the global industrial chain of the fighter jet. The second level comprises F-35 users or countries that bought the fighter jet later. They engage less in the R&D of F-35 and don't assign representatives to the joint program office, such as Israel, the ROK, Belgium and Japan, etc.

Contracts undertaken by Turkish companies in the program would all be scrapped in the beginning of 2020, and Japan saw an opportunity to take over. As a retired Japanese official in the F-35 program said, "With Turkey, a partner, gone, it's like a parking spot is available." Such a partnership would enable Japan to produce parts and components for the F-35 program. Originally there were eight Turkish companies providing 844 types of parts and components for F-35, and taking Turkey's place could help Japan reap billions of US dollars of net income.

Japan has moved to become a "normal state" in recent years, for which independent equipment manufacturing is an important step. Although Japanese media constantly reported Japan's development of the Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin technology demonstrator and the Mitsubishi F-3 stealth fighter, its independent development of high-end fighter jet wasn't a foregone conclusion.

According to the initial agreement between Tokyo and Washington, Japan will manufacture 40% of the 300 main parts of F-35, but Japan isn’t satisfied because in the past when it imported F-86F, F-4EJ, F-15J and other fighter jets from the US, it could engage all the way from raw material to plane manufacturing according to the technology transfer license. Therefore, by requesting to become an F-35 program full partner, Japan intended to obtain more core technologies. Moreover, as Lan Shunzheng noted "when the Pacific War just broke out, Japan's Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter jets wiped the floor with American warplanes, and this hard-learned lesson makes the US vigilant and reserved about Japan grasping high-end warplane technologies".