“Japan and Australia are special strategic partners, and this was a major step toward further enhancing security cooperation with Australia,” said Gen Nakatani, Japanese defense minister.
The deal, for 11 frigates, represents the first major arms sale for Japan since World War II.
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
Sharing MHI's IP with Australia and other measures "goes to show how serious Japan are and how this is a whole of defense (industry & government) effort from Japan," Peter Dean at the US Studies Center said. "They are seeing this as a long-term strategic partnership not just a short-term commercial sale, and that is the best way for them to position themselves to be as competitive as they can be."
“We the Japanese government will guarantee that the whole project, and all the contracts will go smoothly so that there will not be any delay to the project,” Osamu Nishiwaki, a top official at Japan's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA), told reporters.
The three countries, working together, are "arguably the grouping best suited to deliver tangible results when it comes to the balance of military power in the Indo-Pacific," a new report argues.
In the last year Japan has moved from making its first appearance at an international air show, the 2024 Singapore event, to providing radars to the Philippines and engaging in a full court press to sell the Mogami frigate to Australia.
It's been a whirlwind of a year — and the defense establishment has plenty of thoughts on how it's unfolded and what might come next.
"Japan has an excellent chance of success in this program, particularly if the broader technological partnership it will enable is understood clearly at government level in both nations," wrote Michael Shoebridge, founder of Strategic Analysis Australia.