Kishi Defense Minister Starts contract development with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the next fighter October 30, 11:56
On the 30th, Minister of Defense Kishi announced that he had signed a contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and started development of the next fighter, which will be the successor to the F2 fighter of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
Since the F2 fighter of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force will be retired sequentially from around 2035, the Ministry of Defense has decided to develop the next fighter with high stealth as a successor under the initiative of Japan, and mass production will start in 2031. It is a policy to do.
Regarding this, Minister of Defense Kishi said at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting, "We have signed a contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and started development. We would like to steadily proceed with the development of the next fighter."
The contract amount is about 11.1 billion yen, and the Ministry of Defense will sign a contract with only one company in charge of the aircraft, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and will control the whole, including the development of other elements such as engines. I am doing it.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has decided to reduce the development cost of the first domestically produced passenger jet "Mitsubishi SpaceJet" to about 10 billion yen per year, which is about one tenth of the conventional cost, but Minister Kishi said, "Development of the next fighter aircraft. Has no effect. "