Japan Press Weekly

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2015 April 29 - May 12 [US FORCES]

Pentagon expects Japan to buy 17 US Ospreys

The U.S. Department of Defense on May 5 decided to sell 17 V-22B Block C Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft at an estimated three billion dollars (about 360 billion yen) to Japan, reported Akahata on May 8.

Japan’s Abe government is planning to purchase a total of 17 Ospreys for the Ground Self-Defense Force and deploy them at a civilian airport in Saga Prefecture. The government this year will use 51.6 billion yen for purchasing five Ospreys in this plan, the price per aircraft was estimated at 10 billion yen.

However, the U.S.-proposed selling price for each of the 17 Ospreys is 21.1 billion yen, two times higher than the Japanese government’s estimate. The 360 billion yen for the 17 Ospreys is the same amount of taxpayer money slashed from this year’s social welfare budget and is roughly twice as high as this year’s national budget for supporting smaller businesses.

V-22B Block C Ospreys are the same generation tilt-rotor aircraft as the MV-22 Ospreys deployed to the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Okinawa’s Ginowan City.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) indicated that the sale of the V-22B Block C tilt-rotors to Japan will enable the SDF to play a role similar to the U.S. Marine Corps and enhance SDF’s amphibious assault capabilities. It expressed no concern over the Japanese government’s deployment plan. The mayor of Saga City hosting Saga Airport, however, is voicing his objection to the planned deployment to the airport.


Past related articles:
> JCP Nihi urges gov’t to stop deployment of SDF Ospreys to civilian airport in Saga [February 6, 2015]
> Saga City disapproves of use of Saga Airport for Ospreys [August 21, 2014]
> 17 Ospreys for SDF may possibly be deployed at civil airport in Saga [July 23, 2014]