Global arms firms showed off on Wednesday their wares in Japan as it prepared a plan to buy billions of dollars of U. S. military equipment, including at least 40 Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters worth about $4 billion, four sources said. The Lockheed Martin Corp F-35s, which
Global arms firms showed off on Wednesday their wares in Japan as it prepared a plan to buy billions of dollars of U. S. military equipment, including at least 40 Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters worth about $4 billion, four sources said.
The Lockheed Martin Corp F-35s, which will replace 100 aging F-15 fighter jets, are in addition to an earlier order for 42 of the aircraft.
The new procurement will leave Japan with about 100 stealth fighters, including some vertical take off B variants that could fly from helicopter carriers, in a bid to give it an edge over China in the contested East China Sea.
« It will be around 40 new aircraft, » said one of the sources with knowledge of Japan’s five-year plan.
He described a Tuesday report in the Nikkei business daily that Japan would buy as many as 100 new F-35s as « aspirational ».
The procurement plan, which will be released in December with a paper outlining defense goals, is widely expected to accelerate defense spending increases that are already pushing Japan beyond a self-imposed limit of 1 percent of gross domestic product.
