Japan's audit board: Many P-1 patrol planes unusable due to failures
Japan's Board of Audit has found that many of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's domestically-developed P-1 patrol aircraft, which cost a massive amount of taxpayers' money, remain unusable.
P-1 patrol planes are used to search for suspicious submarines and vessels. They were developed and manufactured in Japan as a successor to the US-developed P-3C aircraft. A total of 35 P-1 planes were deployed from fiscal year 1991 through 2023, at a cost of more than 1.77 trillion yen, or about 12.2 billion dollars.
The board said many of the aircraft are not in a condition where they are ready for their missions and where all the devices are functioning without any problems.
Due to security reasons, the board did not give any details such as how many of the aircraft are unusable. But it said some of the aircraft cannot load certain types of weapons due to design flaws and that they require replacement parts.
The board also said a certain ratio of aircraft engines are always left unusable after they become corroded by salt in the air during flight.
The board told the Defense Ministry, the Maritime Staff Office and the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency to improve the situation.
The Defense Ministry said it will take the argument to heart and work to make usable as many aircraft as possible. It said, however, that alternative aircraft are readily available so the situation has not undermined Japan's defense.
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