Japan to introduce early-warning aircraft in new defense program

Japan will strengthen its surveillance capabilities in response to China's growing assertiveness over a territorial dispute by introducing new early-warning aircraft and airborne warning and control systems, an outline of a new medium-term defense program showed Wednesday.

Japan wants to reflect the changes in the envisioned program, set to cover a five-year period from April next year, as tensions with China remain high over a row on the sovereignty of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. China claims the islands and calls them Diaoyu.

The government also wants to list the acquisition of surveillance drones in the envisioned program which is set to be adopted next Tuesday along with the new longer-term defense policy known as the National Defense Program Outline.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed in a meeting with security experts to bolster the defense framework to maximize the potential of the Self-Defense Forces to counter threats, calling the long-term defense policy a "historic document" to shape Japan's security strategy.

To protect Japan's Nansei Islands including the Senkakus, the government also plans to reorganize the troops in charge of the E-2C airborne early-warning aircraft based at the Air Self-Defense Force's Naha Air Base and increase the number of troops behind the F-15 fighters, according to the outline of the medium-term defense program.

Since Japan's purchase in September last year of three of the five islands in the Senkaku group from a private Japanese owner, China has repeatedly sent patrol airplanes and ships to surrounding areas.

With the Senkakus in mind, Japan aims to bolster the ability to protect remote islands from attacks, setting up amphibious forces and also creating new units within the Ground Self-Defense Force, the outline said.

To speed up the troops' mobility, Japan will also introduce aircraft capable of short takeoff and vertical landing, having the U.S. military Osprey transport aircraft in mind.

Abe's government, formed in December last year, has decided to replace the existing long-term and medium-term defense programs compiled in 2010 to bolster SDF equipment and manpower in light of China's growing assertiveness and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

==Kyodo