The head of the Japanese defense department, Nobuo Kishi, ordered a complete revision of the plan to re-equip 20 F-15 fighters with new American-made JASSM and LRASM cruise and anti-ship missiles with a range of about 900 km. This was reported on Wednesday, April 7, by the national newspaper Asahi.
The cost of equipping the F-15 fighters currently used by the Japanese Defense Forces significantly exceeded the expectations of the Japanese, which was the main reason for turning to the American proposal and completely modernizing the existing plan. Its implementation should increase Japan’s defensive potential while protecting the country’s outlying islands.
Initially, the Japanese government expected to allocate 21.3 billion yen for the modernization of the F-15, but the American side increased the cost of the project fivefold. It was also assumed that the allocation of funds will begin in 2021, but in the end it was postponed until 2027.
Earlier on March 29, it became known that on Monday morning, two patrol ships of the Chinese Maritime Police entered the zone of the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Japanese Cabinet Secretary General Katsunobu Kato commented on the event and said that Chinese ships were thus trying to get close to Japanese fishing boats.