Japan signs 1st contracts with domestic plants for F-35 fighter production.

Tuesday, 01 October 2013 13:26


The Japanese government on Monday signed its first set of contracts with domestic defense-linked firms for the joint production of the U.S. F-35 stealth fighters from fiscal 2013, according to Japan's Defense Ministry.



The ministry said that the Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Ltd. will be in charge of conducting the final assembly and the IHI Corp. will make engine parts, while the Mitsubishi Electric Corp. will manufacture radar parts.

The deals with the three manufacturers are worth about 87.7 billion yen (about 890.68 million U.S. dollars) in total.

The Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces will introduce the advanced fighters as the country's next generation mainstay fighter jets, which Japan plans to acquire 42.

The ministry also said that Japan has concluded negotiations with the United States to purchase two F-35 jets at an estimated amount of 23 billion yen (233.59 million dollars) under state budget of 2013. The planes are expected to be delivered in 2018.

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