The MoD said the aircraft is necessary to strengthen electronic warfare support capabilities. In particular, it said that strengthening capabilities to gather information on electromagnetic waves is necessary for electronic jamming and electronic protection.
The budget request for the development of the electronic warfare aircraft for fiscal year 2025, which begins in April, follows the 14.1 billion yen secured for this fiscal year 2024.
At the budget request for this fiscal year in August 2023, the defense ministry also stressed that it needs to respond to the increasingly complex electronic warfare environment and strengthen capabilities in the electromagnetic domain necessary for cross-domain operations.
As Naval News previously reported, the new aircraft is expected to be the successor to the JMSDF’s five EP-3 Orions, which are operated for signal intelligence—SIGINT (electronic intelligence—ELINT and communications intelligence—COMINT).
However, the EP-3, which is a variant of the aging P-3C maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), is expected to become more difficult to be maintained in the future.
Thus, the new electronic warfare aircraft will be developed based on the Kawasaki P-1, or the successor to the P-3C.
Looking at an image of the new aircraft released by the MoD in March on X, the aircraft has distinctive hemispherical bumps on the top of the fuselage and under the nose, which are radomes (dome that covers the radar) equipped with hump-like antenna fairings (coverings). This unique shape makes it clear at a glance that this is an aircraft for a special mission.
Based on the MoD document, the development prototype production will be conducted from fiscal year 2024 to 2031, and various technical tests for performance confirmation will be conducted from 2031 to 2033.
