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Key MSDF patrol aircraft not up to task as corrosion ‘eating' engines
Engine malfunctions are plaguing the fleet of patrol aircraft essential to Maritime Self-Defense Force tracking of Chinese submarines and suspect ships in Japanese waters, according to the Board of Audit.
The aircraft fly over the ocean at low altitudes for hours on end, making them prone to engine corrosion.
The aircraft are a mainstay in Japanese efforts to monitor China's growing maritime assertiveness.
The board did not divulge how many aircraft were affected in keeping with Defense Ministry protocols on security issues.
The P1, the nation's first domestically made aircraft, was initially viewed as holding huge potential. It was considered to have no peer in submarine detection and tracking technology and there was talk of exporting the aircraft.
But that never got off the ground.
The Board of Audit study covered the 35 P1 aircraft deployed at MSDF bases across Japan as of September 2024.
Primarily manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., the first P1 was deployed in 2013.
It was the successor aircraft to the P3C, made by U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp.
The Board of Audit study said development, purchase and repair costs for the P1 through fiscal 2023 came to 1.776 trillion yen ($12.3 billion).
The Defense Ministry's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency plans to eventually deploy a total of 61 P1 aircraft at a cost of 4.090 trillion yen.
The agency knew early on about the engine corrosion issue, but IHI Corp., which oversaw development, said the malfunctions were coincidental. So, nothing was done to rectify the problem.
Within the MSDF, flying the P1 is considered the 'mission of missions' in that it comes with a huge array of detection equipment, making the plane a joy to operate.
Increased sightings of Chinese submarines and other vessels in waters around Japan resulted in many more P1 missions.
The burden of operating the aircraft around the clock on a rotational basis was never envisaged in the development stage, according to a highly placed MSDF officer.
All sorts of issues emerged early on.
The technology used in the U.S.-made P3C was off-limits, so Japanese engineers had to basically develop the aircraft technology from scratch.
And this was at a time when the defense budget was not nearly as massive as it is today, meaning not all aspects of development could be adequately dealt with.
The 'stovepipe' structure that separated ministry bureaucrats from SDF uniformed officers led to a failure in sharing information during the development stage, according to a high-ranking Defense Ministry official.
The Board of Audit also pointed out that issues with the onboard electronic equipment and weapons were another reason some of the aircraft were grounded.
Hopes of exporting the P1 aircraft were dashed after one of a pair dispatched to the Paris Air Show in 2017 developed problems and could not take part.
(This article was written by Wataru Netsu and Daisuke Yajima.)
