Stealth Fighters on the Izumo; What to Expect from Japan’s F-35 Carrying Warships

A number of recent repots indicate that the Japanese government has come to a decision regarding the acquisition of F-35B Lightning II fighters, a Short Takeoff Vertical Landing (STOVL) capable variant of the American single engine stealth jet, on its two Izumo Class carrier warships. This marks a significant further step towards remilitarisation, one which has drawn much controversy and been stringently opposed by many in the Japanese leadership as an unconstitutional move in violation of Article 9 - which prevents the country from retaining a large military or projecting power abroad. While Japan’s Air Force has placed a sizeable order for F-35A fighter jets, these platforms are considered a defensive asset needed to replace the country’s ageing F-4 Phantoms and modernise the country’s defensive capabilities. The carrier capable B variants, by contrast, represent an entirely new type of asset - providing Japan with power projection capabilities unseen since fall of the Japanese Empire.

With reports from February 2018 indicating that the Izumo Class warships were designed from the outset with the deployment of STOVL fighter jets in mind, it was only a matter of time before the F-35B would be acquired for their decks - with the fighters current being the only STOVL capable aircraft in production anywhere in the world. The fighters are considerably less manoeuvrable and have a shorter range than their land based counterparts, and are currently the most costly combat jets in production anywhere in the world due to the high costs of the thrust vectoring systems which allow the aircraft to carry out vertical landings. The Izumo Class carriers themselves, displacing 27,000 tons each and at 248 km long, are capable of deploying a sizeable contingent of the fighters for operations - possibly up to 20 per warship. With the exception of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth Class ships and China’s Type 001 carrier, neither of which are considered fully operational, the Izumo could very well emerge as the most capable carriers in Eurasia - though French and Russian sources may debate this claim.

F-35B fighters embarked on the Izumo may be able to partially compensate for their short range by deploying the latest U.S. made air to air munitions, the AIM-120D ARAAM, which are estimated to retain a range of up to 180km. The European Meteor, which is also compatible with the F-35B and slated for service onboard the British Royal Navy’s own F-35B equipped carriers, remains another option to provide the fighters with advanced long range capabilities. While Japan’s Izumo Class carriers may already be ready to deploy F-35B fighters, the rebuilding of expertise in carrier operations will likely take many years even with extensive assistance from the U.S. Marine Corps - which also deploys the F-35B for carrier operations. In light of the growing defence cooperation between the two, Britain may also prove an invaluable partner in the Japanese carrier program as another major operator of the F-35B.

The entry of the F-35B into service on Japanese carriers will likely also be accompanied by acquisition of a larger fleet of F-35A fighters for the Air Force, currently being planned, and possibly further F-35B jets for operations from short runways on the country’s outlying islands. Whether deploying the F-35B from the Izumo Class will mark a small first step towards deploying a large carrier fleet, which given Japan’s expertise in shipbuilding and the size of its destroyer fleet is highly feasible, remains to be seen. Japan's larger future carriers could well be designed to deploy the F-35C, a cheaper and more capable carrier based variant of the stealth fighter tailored to operations from full sized aircraft carriers such as the U.S. Navy's Nimitz and Gerald Ford Class warships. Should such a warship begin construction within the next decade, expertise in carrier operations gained from deploying fighters on the Izumo Class would be invaluable and allow new carriers to become combat ready far more quickly.