The Japanese Defense Ministry has signed four missile-development and procurement contracts with the country’s biggest defense firm, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
(Bloomberg) — The Japanese Defense Ministry has signed four missile-development and procurement contracts with the country’s biggest defense firm, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
The contracts include one for development of a submarine-launched cruise missile and another for mass production of a hypersonic glide vehicle for island defense, which is expected to be delivered in 2026-27, the ministry said in a statement Tuesday. The other two contracts are for production of Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles, and development of more advanced Type 12 missiles.
Spooked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and simmering tensions between the US and China over neighboring Taiwan, Japan is planning to increase its defense budget by about 60% over the next five years. That means abandoning a decades-old cap on military spending of 1% of gross domestic product.
In this year’s budget, the Defense Ministry set aside more than ¥1.4 trillion ($10.5 billion) to develop its missile capabilities. The statement didn’t mention the cost of the contracts with Mitsubishi Heavy.
Japan is also set to buy Raytheon Technology Corp.’s Tomahawk missiles and Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile as part of its build-up.
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