Sales Pitch Getting Hotter in Tokyo for Next Fighter of JASDF

from various reports,

October 9, 2012

Three makers are intensifying to appeal their respective products for sale to Japan as it is closing its selection of next fighter for Air Self-Defense Force.

New type will replace F-4E Phantom II fleet (103 including modified F-4EJ Kai) and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin F-35A and Eurofighter Typhoon are vying for the selection in coming weeks.

Lockheed Martin has brought in and demonstrated a F-35 cockpit simulator to Tokyo, appealing its high end performance. The company revealed its proposal could satisfy all conditions including delivery time imposed by Japan. Particularly, its stealth performance may appeal to Japan where it would face new generations of fighters in China and Russia in near future.

Boeing, on the other hand, has appealed F-A-18E’s superiority in terms of product supply and cost while emphasizing the company was willing to offer 70-80% of the production for localization with licensing.

BAE Systems, proposing Eurofighter Typhoon,made a presentation in British Embassy in Tokyo with attendance of ambassadors of participating countries, in a unprecedented manner, and called for attention of Japanese decision makers for its superiority and price.

Defense Ministry would choose the type based on not only performance and price but how extensive Japanese corporations can engaged in production and maintenance as to keep production base of fighter business as the last of F-2 production has been completed recently without the immediate project in sight.

The ministry has already submitted its budget request for fiscal 2012 including JPY55.1 billion for acquisition of the first four aircraft of FX and will finalize the selection by the end of November.

New Intelligence Satellite Launched Successfully by H2A Heavy Lift; More Information on North Korea in Sight

                   From Nihon Keizai Shimbun/Asahi Shimbun, web editions, 23 September 2011       

           
Mitsubishi Heavy Industry and JAXA has launched the 19th unit of heavy lifter H2A carrying the Japanese government’s information gathering satellite Kogaku #4 on 1:36pm, 23 September (JST) from Tanegashima Space Center. The satellite was separated from the rocket and put into planned orbit and the launch was evaluated as successful. H2A has marked 13 consecutive launches without failure.

The new satellite is designed to monitor military installations in North Korea as well as large scale natural calamity by orbiting about 500km distance from the surface. It is equipped telescope and high end digital camera and will replaces the second unit of optical recognisance satellite whose designed life of five yeas had expired.

Japan plans to operate a combination of optical reconnaissance satellites and radar satellites. Current three units are all optical information gathering satellites and two of the three have already passed designed longevity. By launching a new generation of satellites, two optical and two radar equipped, Japan would obtain a new capabilities to monitor any selected place on the surface at least once a day, regardless of time and the weather.
           
Capabilities of the new optical satellite is classified but it may identify an object on the surface as small as 60cm.

Launching of indigenous information gathering satellites was initiated in 1998 after a missile launch over Japan by North Korea.

Who Is Noda? What implications to aerospace industry?

NODA, Yoshihiko, 95th prime minister since 19th century, born 27 May 1957


Enter the sixth prime minister in five years. Japanese prime minister is given wider authority than most people might think. For instance, he is the commander in chief for all defense affairs.

Let us take a look at what he have spoken before regarding space and aviation matters.

He was showing his initiative to look for defense use of the outer space, as chairman of working team for science and technology application policies at his party. His stance was against the conventional government standpoint to restrain the military use of space. He also showed his idea to pursue ‘Space Treaty’ to allow Japan to use use space for non-aggressive use. He also worked hard to reorganize many divisions in different ministries into ‘Space Agency,’ that is now approved agenda for near future reshuffle of the government organizations.


However, he has so many urgent agenda, mostly domestic such as recovery from natural and nuclear disaster from March 11, too fast appreciation of yen currency, mounting deficit; but it is also true that he must face many unsolved diplomatic issues like Okinawa base relocation, challenges from Korea and China. In this circumstance, it seems he may give lower priority to space policy.

His policy viewpoint is sometimes regarded as ‘hawkish’ and it is a focus of attention whom he would appoint as new Defense Minister. At least my favorite choice of Seiji Maehara has not chance as he was appointed as chief of policy making at his ruling party.

His new cabinet is expected to be launched on September 2.

Converted US-2 Flying-boat Civilian Use: Ministry of Defense Approves Export to India In Sight and More to Follow

July2, 2011

Japan’s Ministry of Defense will approve civilian conversion of several defense assets for possible export to Asian market. The first of this new approach will take place with US-2 search and rescue flying boat. Shin-maywa, the maker of the aircraft has started its sales to India and Brunei as fire-fighting aircraft.

1. All of technical information belongs to the Ministry by the contract and it calls for approval by the minister for the Shin-maywa to use the intellectual property for its own commercial use. Since the flying boat is not designed for combat, the government has understood its export cannot violate Japan’s Three Principles to Ban Weapons Export. With the approval by the ministry, Shin-maywa will be able to show detailed data of the aircraft to potential foreign customers.
2. The price tag is expected to JPY7-8 billion (about US$100 million) per aircraft and the maker will pay a certain amount of commission to the ministry. Higher than Bombardiar’s flying boats, US-2 has appealing performance such as lower speed flight and the ministry and the maker estimate a certain demands in market. Shin-maywa will complete its variant as fire fighting type and try to sel to domestic local governments for 3 to 5 units.
3. India and Brunei are showing strong interest in US-2; most probably the two nations are thinking of China as future threat and expanding their assets while keeping stronger ties with Japan by importing Japanese defense assets.
4. After US-2, most probably two types of aircraft will follow the case of defense-to-civilian conversion: C-2, twin-jet air transport and P-1, four-jet propelled maritime patrol aircraft, both developed jointly by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and the Ministry of Defense.

Flying with Peach: ANA’s new brand for LCC is Peach

28 May 2011

ANA has announced on May 24 that its LCC would be named Peach.Shinichi Ito, CEO, stated ‘the company wishes to become the first LCC from Japan to Asian destinations.’

Peach will start its scheduled flight service from its home at Kansai International Airport to domestic destinations of Fukuoka and Shin Chitose (Sapporo) from March 2012 and international destinations starting from Inchon (Seoul) in May 2012. Peach will pursue the general level of airfare of other LCCs, around half of major airlines.

There are some speculations that ANA, a legacy airline, cannot get success in LCC business as the two brands would vie for the same customers at the same air routes.

Recognizing the previous cases of too interference from parent companies that led to failure of new born LCCs, ANA’s CEO Shin-ichiro Ito wishes to tolerate some degree of ‘dog-eat-dog’ situations in existing domestic routes.

Of current employees of 50 at Peach, a third is transferred from ANA and the new born LCC wants to hire more mid-career from other airlines and other business sectors and gradually reduce the influence of ANA’s culture.　

Peach's website in English: http://www.flypeach.com/?lang=en

Japanese Air Force Made 29% More Scramble Flights; 2.5 Times More for Chinese Aircraft in 2010

from Nihon Keizai Shimbun, April 28, 2011

Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Council (JSC) released the number of scrambling by Japan Air Self Defense Force (JADSF) during fiscal 2010, April 2010-March 2011. The number for Chinese aircraft showed 2.5 times increase from the previous year by a total of 96 missions. Scrambling for Russian aircraft accounted for 68％ as the largest with 264 sorties or 34% increase. The statistics show the two countries were intensified for their intelligence and information gathering missions to Japan.
The total number of scrambling was 368 times in fiscal 2010, a 29% increase but there was no case of incursion to the Japanese airspace, according to JSC. A peak of the number of scrambling was recorded in 1984, in the midst of cold war, with 944 sorties, then it went down as low as 331 times in fiscal 1992.

The Russians carried out long distance flight along with the Japanese airspace from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific Ocean while the Chinese approached closer to the Senkaku Islands that Japan claims as its territory.

Since March 11 earthquake, JASDF still flew its interceptors to the approaching aircraft of the two countries: 14 sorties to the Russians and 4 times for the Chinese respectively.

Photo Ministry of Defense

JAL Reborn In More Troubled Sky

March 29,2011

Japan Airline's corporate rehabilitation process has come to complete on March 28 as it was decided by the Tokyo District Court. JAL got additional loan of about 255 billion yen (about $3 billion) from banks, that was used to repay its carryover debt of about 395 billion yen with its own cash. However, Japanese air traffic would be in a hard time after March 11 earthquake/tsunami and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and its path to growth again is not secured.

JAL had filed an application for the corporate rehabilitation process on January 19,2010; it had over 1 trillion yen debt     back then and literally bankrupt.  Its major transaction banks abandoned their loan armouring 520 billion yen. JAL completed a tough restructuring plan such as slashing off 16,000 employees as a whole group level, dropping unprofitable air routes and capacity cutting that had approval of the court in November 2010.

The global economic recovery worked positively for JAL to earn 175 billion yen operating profit in 11 months from April  2010 until February 2011. This better performance resulted in additional loans from the banks.

However, the post quake traffic is decreasing overall and Ken Onishi, President of JAL, revealed its domestic demand is 28% off while international demand is 25% down.
　
Kazuo Inamori, Chairman, is confident to run JAL better now by seeing profitability by air route, though he expects lowering of the corporate performance is unavoidable.

Russian Aircraft Violated Japan’s Airspace; Possibly to Collect Radioactive Air Sample

From the Asahi Shimbun, March 30, 2011
   
Two Russian aircraft entered Japan’s air defense identification zones with air dust collection pods as found by the Japanese air force; most probably the Russian aircraft was missioned to collect radioactive matters in the air as released from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident to find the effect to their own country.

Defense Ministry official told that a Su-27 flew from Vladivostok to the coast off Akita, Japan entering Japan’s Air Defence Identification Zone from 8:30am to 10:30am (local time) on March 21. On the same day, from 10:30 am to 11:30 am, another aircraft, An12 for electronic warfare, flew from off coast of Noto Peninsular to the western coast of Hokkaido, another intrusion to ADIZ.

The both aircraft were intercepted by fighter aircraft of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force that visually observed the Russian aircraft were fitted with dust collection pods respectively. The Su-27 was found to be flying at different altitudes of 2,000 ft to 20,000 ft., a typical flight profile to identify the thickest air with radioactive substances.
　
Japan’s Defense Ministry has analyzed their flight patterns were provocative as 1) the Russian aircraft purposely intruded Japan”s ADIZs knowing to trigger scrambling of Japanese air force 2) the Russians apparently tried to check the current alertness by Japan for air space intrusion while a large-scale deployment of its military power is ongoing to rescue missions to March 11 earthquake and tsunami disasters.

Post Quake Support: Two Globalhawks Flying Over Japan

USAF is operating two Globalhawk UAVs and U-2s over Japan, esp. Tohoku region where intensive damage by March 11 earthquake and tsunami directly hit. Unofficially the casualty of this disaster is exceeding 20,000 mark, including those who still missing.

Globalhawk is especially put on special imagery information gathering mission flying high over Fukushima Diichi nuclear plant where the desperate efforts are going on to cool down those uncontrolled nuclear reactors.

Mainichi Shimbun reported that the imagery information data was shared by USAF to the Japanese government but Tokyo is reluctant to show the images of the plant to Japanese public. The reasons for its reluctance is unknown but USAF has gave the information to the Japanese government  without conditions, reportedly.

Earthquake Update: Three Airports Closed

Sendai,  Hanamaki and Ibaraki Airports are closed as of now by the  severe earthquake on Friday. Sendai airport view was observed by fly over airplane, showing its tarmac and runway was completely washed by tsunami and covered by brown muddy soil while some light airplanes still standing although they are out of order.

Narita International Airport is operative and the author of this blog had landed there on Saturday afternoon; inside the airport terminal, some moving escalators were inoperative showing power failure's damage to the system.

Local and land transportation is largely disturbed while ANA, JAL are operating special flights to airports of Tohoku (north eastern region) such as Aomori, Yamagata and Fukushima. Yamagata Airport is now designated as 24-hour operation emergency base for rescue missions.

This report is compiled as of 5 pm JST (+9 UTC) from various reporting.

Breaking News; Narita and Sendai Airports Closed by Quake

By stronger-ever earthquake off the coast of northeastern part of Honshu island in the afternoon of Friday March 11 (local time), both Narita International and Sendai airports are closed of the entire operations. NHK public broadcasting showed Sendai airport where its terminal tarmac was washed by Tsunami tidal waves while people escaped to the rooftop of the terminal. No direct damage to Narita is reported so far.
 

JAL's Recovery On Track

JAL Records Higher Profit Than Originally Planned 
/JAL To Get New Capital

From Jiji Press and Yomiuri Shimbun, 26 February 2011

Japan Airlines, under corporate rehabilitation, will  be highly likely to          record consolidated profit of JPY170 billion (US$2 billion) at the end of March 2011. This amount is 2.6 times larger than the originally planned profit by the corporate rehabilitation plans as submitted to the Tokyo District Court at the end of last August, attributed to the company’s overall cost reduction efforts. The forecasted amount of profit is the record high in the history of JAL The higher cash flow will help the airliner to strengthen its financial foundation, the company’s weak point over the years.

JAL will welcome additional financial help from eight companies as capital investment of JPY 20 billion at maximum. New investors will include Tokio Marine and JTB, travel agency among other six companies of Daiwa Securities, Kyocera, Mitsui Sumitomo Marine and Fire, Sompo Japan, MS & AD Insurance and Hankyu Travel. JAL first wanted a larger capital investment  as much as 50 billion yen; as the result of JAL’s overall management performance will lower the amount to 20 billion level.

Apart from that, JAL  expects a new financial loan equivalent of JPY280 billion from major dealing five banks led by Development Bank of Japan as well as new members such as Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, Aozora, Tokyo Star, Chiba Banks as well as Okinawa Development Finance Corporation.