Page 106 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb-Mar 2023

106 AIR POWER
REGIONAL CAPABILITIES
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
The novelty of this was emphasised in 2019, when the JAS- DF dropped a Joint Direct Attack Munition from a Mitsubi- shi F-2 for the first time in support of an amphibious exercise.
The event took place after it was announced that Japan formed a Multi-Domain Defence Force, which organically fuses capabilities in space, cyber and the electromagnetic spectrum with those in ground, maritime and air domains and is capable of sustained and flexible activities through joint operations.
Instead, Japan is banking on closer integration with US forces as a means of improving its own capabilities. The JASDF’s F-35s, Northrop-Grumman E-2D Hawkeye and JMSDF Aegis destroyers are all equipped with Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), leveraging on each other’s sensor and/or shooter capabilities along with those of CEC- equipped US Navy assets.
LEFT: As well as purchasing F-35As South Korea is also developing the indigenous KF-21 Boramae fi hter
BELOW: Japan is developing the Kawasaki RC-2 for SIGINT operations
NIGEL PITTAWAY
US forces based on the Peninsula, South Korea is also de- veloping its own fifth generation capabilities, aided by a local defence industry that has made great strides in recent years.
The Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) has taken de- livery of around 20 of 40 F-35As on order at Cheongju in the central part of South Korea. Like Japan, the F-35s will be replacing the F-4 Phantom II in ROKAF service, with the last of its venerable Phantoms still soldiering on in the twilight of its career.
South Korea has also been toying with the idea of buying the F-35B, with the previous administration of President Moon Jae-Im flagging the development and fielding of an aircraft carrier operating the STOVL jet.
The program, known as CVX, is however in doubt under the current government of President Yoon Suk-yeol, which left the project unfunded in last year’s South Korean de- fence budget. It has instead approved funding for 20 more F-35As for the ROKAF and boosting the country’s subma- rine program.
The country has also invested in its own range of bal- listic missiles and defences against similar weapons from North Korea. The threat to the country is real, with both Koreas technically still at war.
While the impoverished North cannot match the pros- perous South’s military in a conventional fight, its numer- ous short-range ballistic missiles and long-range artillery rockets put all South Korea in range, while longer range
NIGEL PITTAWAY
“DESPITE THE MODERN PLATFORMS, JAPAN STILL HAS SOME WAY TO GO WHEN IT COMES TO FIELDING A NETWORKED, INTEGRATED FORCE”
The dependence on US sen- sor capability is not a panacea however, and North Korea’s continued development of its ballistic missile and nuclear capabilities will be among the key drivers of Japan’s own im- proved sensor and networking capabilities.
The country is already continuing the development of airborne stand-off intelli- gence gathering capabilities in the form of the RC-2 aircraft based on the Kawasaki C-2 airlifter, which will augment the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft and space- based sensor capabilities Japan is continuing to develop and
introduce.
SOUTH KOREA: GOING ITS OWN WAY
Across the Sea of Japan (also known as the East Sea) South Korea has taken a different approach from fellow US ally Ja- pan. While continuing efforts to integrate more closely with