Navy photo

An F-18C tests the JPALS assisted-landing system aboard the USS Theodore Roosvelt. (Photo via US Navy.)

WEST 2023 — Raytheon has been awarded an $8.6 million foreign military sales contract through the US Navy to provide Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) with the Navy’s widely-used system for guiding aircraft landings onboard carriers and amphibious vessels.

The Joint Precision Approach and Landing System, nicknamed JPALS, is in use across US fleet as well as warships belonging to the United Kingdom and Italy. The deal, which was announced by the Navy and Raytheon in separate statements this month, was signed in December 2022.

“The urgency with which this contract was completed is a testament to our commitment to closely collaborate with our JMSDF partners, which is critical to the 2022 National Defense Strategy call to bolster robust deterrence in the [Indo-Pacific],” said US Navy Cmdr. Charles Steele, the deputy program manager for JPALS.

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Dennis Donahue, president of surveillance and network systems at Raytheon’s Intelligence and Space division, said the company to date has delivered 22 systems to the US Navy.

“Over the past few years, we’ve been engaged with the U.S. Navy and Japan to deliver enhanced safety and increased operational capability to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, ensuring landing accuracy every time for pilots regardless of weather conditions,” he said.

JPALS will be equipped onboard the Japanese warship JS Izumo, according to Raytheon.

Breaking Defense previously reported that Raytheon has also been developing an “expeditionary variant” of JPALS aimed at helping Marine Corps pilots land in difficult environments other than a ship. That effort, which is an independent research and development effort, was demonstrated for service leadership at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in June 2021.

“What was so unique about that was we never thought the demonstrator would be able to go that far of a distance [11 miles],” CJ Jaynes, a retired Navy rear admiral and Raytheon executive, said at the time. “We thought the demonstrator [would reach] maybe a half a mile because we had not really beefed up the software on that.”

Jaynes told Breaking Defense this week Raytheon is continuing to develop the capability dubbed eJPALS and that another demonstration similar to the 2021 event is planned to take place in the “Asia-Pacific region.”

“This is an important step as Japan gets ready to operate F-35Bs from the deck of the DDH Izumo,” she said in a written statement today. “We are now in discussions with Japan about procuring an eJPALS system to be used for carrier landing practice as Japan pilots prepare for sea operations.”