TOKYO — Japan took a step on Tuesday (Dec 11) toward expanding its military capabilities by advancing plans for aircraft carriers that can launch fighter jets.
The plans, contained in a draft of new defence guidelines approved by the governing parties, would effectively arm Japan with its first aircraft carriers since World War II, with potential striking powers well beyond Japanese territory.
The move risks inflaming a politically delicate debate in Japan over whether such expanded military capability is compatible with the country’s pacifist constitution.
Under the change, large Japanese naval vessels now equipped with helicopters would be upgraded, enabling them to carry jet fighters capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings, and equipped with stealth technology to avoid detection.
With such upgrades, Japan will “enable fighter jets to be operated from existing warships, if necessary to improve the flexibility of their operation,” according to a passage from the guidelines reported by the Kyodo News Agency.
Kyodo quoted unidentified government sources as saying that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet intended to endorse the revised guidelines this month.
Military analysts in the United States said the upgrades, which Japanese defence officials have been talking about for a while, reflected Japan’s shared concern with the United States about the growing assertiveness of China’s aerial and naval forces in the Pacific.
Kyodo said that under the planned upgrades, the Japanese government would convert its Izumo flattop destroyers, which can hold 14 helicopters each, so that they can also be used to deploy short-takeoff and vertical-landing aircraft like the F-35B, an American warplane.
The agency quoted Japan’s defence minister, Takeshi Iwaya, as telling reporters that since the Izumo had originally been designed as a multipurpose escort ship, “it wouldn’t pose any threat to other countries if fighter jets are deployed on it.”
Mr Iwaya said last month that the government was considering purchases of the F-35B, a variant of the Lockheed Martin Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. Iwaya said the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force’s two Izumo-class warships would have to be upgraded to handle F-35B operations. THE NEW YORK TIMES