Regarding the Air Self-Defense Force's next-generation fighter, the Ministry of Defense is making adjustments to develop a common aircraft with the United Kingdom, which is conducting joint research on engines, in order to control development costs.
Regarding the next-generation fighter that will succeed the Air Self-Defense Force's F2 fighter, major companies in Japan and the UK have started joint research on engines since January this year, and at the Japan-UK summit meeting in May, cooperation between the two countries on development was announced. We agreed to agree on the overall picture by the end of this year.
In response to this, the Ministry of Defense is proceeding with coordination in the direction of developing a common aircraft, saying that the performance required for the next fighter is almost the same as that of the UK, and development costs can be suppressed.
In addition, the joint development is also considering the participation of Italy, which has a cooperative relationship with the United Kingdom in the development of fighter aircraft.
The Ministry of Defense has included 143.2 billion yen as development costs for the next-generation fighter in its budget request for next fiscal year, and wants to start deploying the next-generation fighter by around 2035, when F2 fighters will be retired.