The U.S. State Department has announced the approval of a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to Japan, which includes the purchase of up to 1,200 AIM-120D-3 and AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and related equipment, for an estimated cost of $3.64 billion.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this potential sale on January 2, 2025.
According to the announcement, “The Government of Japan has requested to buy up to one thousand two hundred (1,200) AIM-120 (D-3/C-8) Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM); up to twenty (20) AIM-120D-3 guidance sections, including precise positioning provided by either Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module or M-Code; and up to four (4) AIM-120C-8 guidance sections.”
Additionally, the sale includes “AMRAAM propulsion sections, warheads, AIM-120 Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM), missile containers, and control section spares; Common Munitions Built-in Test (BIT) Reprogramming Equipment (CMBRE); ADU-891 Adaptor Group Test Sets; munitions support and support equipment; spare and repair parts, consumables, accessories, and repair and return support; classified software delivery and support; classified publications and technical documentation; transportation support; studies and surveys; warranties; US Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistical support services; and other related elements of logistics and program support.”
This proposed sale is part of the broader goal to “improve the security of a major ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific region.” It is expected to enhance Japan’s ability to meet both current and future threats, especially in defending its homeland and U.S. personnel stationed in the country.
The U.S. State Department assures that “Japan will have no difficulty absorbing these articles and services into its armed forces.” The principal contractor for this sale is “RTX Corporation, located in Tucson, AZ,” and there are no offset agreements associated with this sale.
Implementation of the sale “will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Japan.” Furthermore, the U.S. has confirmed that “there will be no adverse impact on U.S. defence readiness as a result of this proposed sale.”
Anyone reasonable would think there is a chance of a major conflict on the horizon; meanwhile, UK Govt awaits Defence Review.
Why don’t they bring the review forward or speed it up if they know the issues, worse case scenarios and available solutions by now? Will the UK also make a significant AMRAAM purchase as Meteor is not yet integrated into F35Bs? And ASRAAM and Meteor for Typhoon?
Why don’t they bring the review forward or speed it up if they know the issues, worse case scenarios and available solutions by now? Will the UK also make a significant AMRAAM purchase as Meteor is not yet integrated into F35Bs? And ASRAAM and Meteor for Typhoon?
Sorry for the twice…
We ordered a decent batch of Ds a couple years back.
What the F is going on with AMRAAM versions. It’s starting to look like the Bf109 variants; absolute version hell mess as the C8 is a D3.
The difference is we don’t have a current risk of war impacting our territory, whilst Japan is in dispute with China over large areas of ocean. We also have the whole of Europe between us and our only peer threat. Not saying we don’t need to rearm but we do have a different time frame.
Whilst its highly likley the sdsr will just be the usual cuts, in the small chance its not, i would rather wait and get the SDSR done properly rather than rush it and get things wrong. At best Russia won’t threaten nato for another 10 years, a few extra months isn’t going change anything.
Time is not our friend in this matter.
Whilst it is totally true that a number Russia is on the back foot it is a wounded and dangerous bear that could well lash out and miscalculate.
That could well suit Xi who could then be the adult in the room of the crazies of the Mullahs or Iran and The Little Man in The Hermit Kindgom. Look at the amount of trouble the Huthi’s are causing and nobody wants to get stuck into that?
Look at what Mad Vald and Xi are up to with pipelines and cables?
Not rearming at a serious pace is sending a dreadful message.
That coupled with the inaction of RFA pay which they might as well take out billboard space saying “this does not matter to us” and the dire availability of RN combatants is actually a very significant risk factor in all of this as you could usually count of the British to high hard and well and be prepared to take losses and keep going. That was the lesson that was learned from ’82 when the Russians took stock of that and realised that RN could probably defeat the Russian fleet on its own.
The calculus is always about the willing. Which are fewer. Mentally they will have removed Germany, Spain and France from the equation as they will do as it suits them and the Italians are generally too politically unstable to deploy. So that is a lot of the hard European mass removed from the equation.
Whilst the Nordics, Dutch etc are reliable allies they deployable expeditionary capabilities are tiny even in alliance. Poland is a land based force that can keep a lid on Russian land aggression.
Which is where UK is, strangely in spite of our shrunken size, critical to the overall balance of power.
At the moment UK are busily destabilising that balance of power by leaving power vacuums to be filled by others whilst we vacillate about spending relatively small sums of money. It won’t be long now before we wish we could turn the clock back and have been spending 2.5% all along so the hollowing out was not so bad.
All because we cannot actually say that benefits and social care spending needs to be capped and families incentives to look after older relatives at home – maybe with inheritance tax credits(?). Why is it that nobody seems able to say that younger generation looking after older folks is a social and societal good?
That coupled with our ‘leadership’ in destroying our industry and handing the exports to China and then throttling what we have remaining with crazy energy prices on the alter of Net Zero thus handing away some of our cash to fund the aggression.
Really you couldn’t make it up.
Absolutely agree that a serious UK (indeed, ENATO) rearmament programme should be a high priority. Unfortunately, that is generally acknowledged to be an extremely remote possibility. Quite concerned that the Donald will seize upon that reality, in conjunction w,/ probable NATO political schism re UKR conflict, to accelerate US deemphasis/disengagement from NATO, to concentrate on the I-P and the Western Hemisphere. The storm clouds are gathering for the perfect storm of the next global conflict, and NATO’s (including the US) political classes refuse to acknowledge reality.
In a lot of cases caring for older relatives at home or in there homes is not really practical for relatives. especially if we talking about caring for people with dementia
Russia is and will only increase sabotage, cyber attacks, executions and intimidation and Britain will be a perhaps the prime target, just because it’s not out and out war doesn’t mean capabilities aren’t needed urgently, not doing so will be seen as weakness indeed. Equally any response to their aggressive behaviour could lead to conflict a lot sooner than 10 years, it’s unpredictable when dealing with a psychopath with revenge on his mind and another unpredictable bonkers personality supposedly in our corner but potentially stitches us and Europe up while with Musk meddling madly at his side promoting extreme right/left regimes supportive of Putin because of their own political leanings or economic advantage. Dangerous and unpredictable times ahead. And fact is moments in time like a defence review rarely determine more than broad sweeps in decision making and go out of date very quickly so shouldn’t be an ex use for present decision making which should be pursued on a platform by platform basis and requirement and not exploited for political purposes to simply cover delays to that urgent spending and filling those most concerning capacity gaps.
thats a massive order- surely going to see Japan through a large scale conflict
1,200 units was recently reported as the total annual build by Raytheon, with an increase in productivity mooted. How many would be “off the shelf” and how long would the delivery time be?
Got to expect a significant delivery time I presume.
AMRAAM is also used in ground base applications. I can’t help but think that’s also a factor.
Yes, in NASAM’s.
A country that is serious with defence can only wish the uk was 😕
Japan will spend $55.9b on defence in FY24, a sizeable increase but only 1.33% of GDP. Because they spend nothing on nuclear systems, their budget stretches to a lot of conventional equipment.
UK could do the same if we abandoned CASD, SSN. Defence nuclear now accounts for @40% of the equipment budget. With Putin continuing to make nuclear threats, relying on conventional weapons alone to deter him would be very unwise.
Exactly so.
But that is why an increase of UK budget to 2.75% would be a massive and real game changer provided it doesn’t just disappear into the usual huge black holes such as nuclear and fancy mega project [from which I exclude ordering more P8, E7, F35, Typhoon, T26, T31(2), Storm Shadow, Sea Ceptor, A30 etc as the costs are knowable and known]!
Adding £14Bn to the budget would pretty much double conventional front line defence spending – bearing in mind most of the infrastructure is already there any paid for now. There would be some issues with systems and bases having been scaled back to the budget levels.
The SDR is probably looking at the cost of 70 million white flags..and if we should ask China to make them for us….we have to keep the cost down so we can pay £8 billion to look after illegals
Agree, unfortunately France and the UK are the only ENATO powers in a position to develop and maintain full spectrum militaries. The extremely unfortunate reality is that it is/will be impossible to succeed in that mission w/ current and projected defence budgets.