AFP/Tokyo
Japan is considering building its own fighter jets after years of playing second fiddle in a US construction partnership, a report said Thursday, in a move likely to stoke fears of its military resurgence among Asian neighbours.
Japan's attempt in the 1980s to build its first purely domestic fighters since World War II faced US resistance and resulted in joint US-Japan development and production of the F-2, the Nikkei newspaper said.
But joint F-2 production ended more than two years ago and the last of the fighters are due to be retired from Japan's air defence force around 2028, it added.
The defence ministry plans to seek about 40 billion yen ($387 million) in state funding for the next year starting in April 2015 to test experimental engines and radar-dodging stealth airframe designs for a purely Japanese fighter, the report said.
The defence ministry started work four years ago on the so-called Advanced Technology Demonstrator-X (ATD-X) plane to explore the project's feasibility by studying lightweight airframe designs and built-in missile-firing mechanisms, the Nikkei said.
The ATD-X is due to start testing experimental engines in January and the stealth airframe designs in April, the report said.
The ministry hopes to develop the actual engines for the project in cooperation with IHI, Mitsubishi Heavy and other defence contractors in about five years.
Developing a purely domestic fighter is estimated to cost a massive 500-800 billion yen ($4.8-7.7 billion), the report said.
According to its medium-term defence programme, the Tokyo government will decide by the 2018 financial year whether to go ahead with the all-Japanese fighter project.
Concept image of ATD-X aircraft
