Japan to Push its Defense-Industrial to Grow

24 Juli 2021

MHI and Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding selected as the prime contractor for 30FFM frigate (photo : Mitsui ES)

Japanese defense firms prosper amid futuristic tech orders, export drives

MELBOURNE, Australia — Japan is continuing to push its defense-industrial base to grow as the country slowly builds up its self-defense forces to counter China’s growing military.

This year’s Defense News Top 100 list, which ranks the largest defense companies in the world, is host to three Japanese firms, including Subaru Corporation (85th place with $805.5 million in defense revenue), which did not make the previous year’s list.

Other Japanese companies include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, or MHI, (32nd with $3.788 billion in defense revenue) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (51st with $2.026 billion in defense revenue). KHI made a return to the list after dropping out of the previous year’s version.

MHI has retained a clear lead as the biggest Japanese defense contractor, despite its defense revenue falling 42 percent, having made $6.57 billion in defense revenue the previous year. However, the global automotive conglomerate brought in $31.465 billion in total revenue.

The company is also collaborating on hypersonic technology research — for both a hypersonic cruise missile and a hypervelocity gliding projectile — with the government’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency.

Mogami export

Japan is also continuing low-key efforts to export defense equipment, following its first successful arms export deal since restrictive defense export laws were relaxed by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014. The move was made to broaden Japan’s defense-industrial base and make it more sustainable.

That export deal, signed in August 2020, was for fixed and mobile air defense radars to the Philippines. Now Japan is targeting Indonesia’s requirement for frigates, for which it is offering the Mogami-class multirole frigate under a proposal that will see four of eight frigates for Indonesia built at shipyards in the latter country.

The Mogami class is a 3,900-ton design being built for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. Three ships were already launched, and there are plans for five more. The 130-meter-long frigates are designed for missions ranging from mine countermeasures, surface and subsurface warfare, and they can deploy unmanned surface and underwater vehicles.

Indonesia recently announced it will acquire the Italian FREMM frigate from Fincantieri, but it’s unclear if Indonesia would buy the Mogami class under a different program since the Japanese ships are vastly different in size and capabilities from the Italian design.

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