Northrop Grumman, American aerospace and defence technology company will be the prime contractor of the deal costing 1.4 billion USD

The US Defence Security Cooperation Agency on Tuesday notified state departments’ approval for possible foreign military sales to Japan. The sale includes E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft.

Northrop Grumman, American aerospace and defence technology company will be the prime contractor of the deal costing 1.4 billion USD.

According to the reports along with logistics and technical support services, the possible sale includes APY-9 radars and AN/AYK-27, an integrated navigation control and display systems already installed in the aircraft.

However, since the agency has notified Congress, the value and quantity of material are likely to change while negotiating.

The proposed sale will improve Japan’s ability to provide homeland defence utilizing an AEW&C capability, according to the agency’s official statement.

It added Japan will further use the E-2D AHE aircraft to provide AEW&C situational awareness of air and naval activity in the Pacific region and to augment its existing E-2C Hawkeye AEW&C fleet.

The announcement comes following Japan’s seeks to increase its military spending.

Meanwhile, earlier last year in December, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida asked his cabinet to secure funds to double military spending to 2 per cent of gross domestic product. Following the same, Tokyo has even released three major national security documents, with the National Security Strategy calling for counter-strike capabilities in response to missile threats from China and North Korea.

While with the recent notification, the US agency approves the possible sale of 250 Javelin FGM-148F missiles jointly made by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies.

The missiles and related equipment are to be purchased by Canberra for about 60.2 million USD and the value and quantity might change during negotiations.

Reports say Canberra plans to use the missiles to secure its anti-armour capabilities as Australia is one of the most important allies in the Western Pacific, the agency statement added.