Japan seeking role in overseas plane project

TOKYO/BERLIN — In a fresh bid to win its first major foreign arms deal since World War II, Japan is proposing its P-1 submarine hunter for a French-German project to develop a marine surveillance aircraft, two Japanese government sources said.

Discussions between the three governments began last year. Japanese officials also asked Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which makes the P-1, to discuss possible partnerships with France’s Dassault Aviation and Thales SA, said the sources, who have direct knowledge of the proposal but are not authorized to speak to the media.

“If they try and build it from scratch it will cost a lot and their potential market is small, even if Spain or other European countries buy it,” one of the sources said of the European project.

But the P-1 may be a tough sell in a competition with plenty of home-field heavyweights.

Airbus has said it is exploring military applications for its A320neo passenger jet family. Boeing is also likely to offer its P-8A Poseidon.

“We have introduced the P-1 to other countries with the backing of the Japanese Ministry of Defense,” a Kawasaki Heavy spokeswoman said. “However, we are not able to discuss individual cases.”

A Ministry of Defense spokesman said Japan was looking at several ways to work with France and Germany on defense technologies after signing separate cooperation deals. But he added: “We are not in talks aimed at joint developments and have no plan to conceive a three-way project.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ended a decadeslong ban on arms exports four years ago.

But since then, Tokyo has been unable to sell defense gear overseas as long-isolated Japanese defense contractors struggled in the competitive global arms market.

In 2015, Japan offered the P-1 to Britain, which chose Boeing’s P-8 instead from a crowded field. In 2016 it lost out on a lucrative contract to supply Australia with a fleet of diesel-powered submarines, work that went to French naval contractor DCNS.