Japan Forms Defense Team to Boost Drone and AI Strategies

• Japan's Defense Ministry forms a 30-member team to develop new drone and AI-based warfare strategies.
• The team will study Ukraine war tactics, UAV applications, and Japan-U.S. defense cooperation.
• Focus on strengthening Japan's defense industry, expanding arms exports, and improving command integration with U.S. forces.

The Defense Ministry has formed a group to brainstorm and come up with fresh means of fighting with the use of drones and artificial intelligence (AI).

In a bid to strategically enhance defense capabilities of Japan, the team shall look into the war in Ukraine and multinational defense collaboration as part of lessons that can be learnt. It is in this manner that the ministry plans to start planning future reviews of the defense programs of the country. This spring, the ministry determined to get an integrated policy on how to use UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), that strategy includes defense industries, and problems on Japan-U.S. relationship. In that regard, the ministry formed the team consisting of approximately 30 staff members.

There are millions of drones that have been used in the war between Russia and Ukraine and unmanned sea vessels have been of use as well. The use of UAVs and AI can substantially change the course of the battle, thus the team of the ministry will not leave these aspects unexplored. Self-Defense Forces (SDF) are falling behind in the use of UAVs. The Defense Ministry team hence intends to come up with a rudimentary idea of utilizing the broader use of UAVs including strike actions on targets and scouting missions.

Looking at deterrence to China, which is increasingly intensifying her hegemonic moves, the ministry would wish to make a decision between a direction or alignment to South Korea and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as the others in the immediate area. It is becoming important to procure defense equipment swiftly. The team will also negotiate viable solutions to enhance the strength of companies that belong to the Japanese defense industry.

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In a bid to widen selling channels of defense tools, the team would probably talk about expanding exports of defense tools to countries which have compatibility in terms of values with Japan. In the Japan-U.S. relationship, the team will probably concentrate on integrations of command and control between the SDF and U.S. troops, and Japan’s cost of hosting U.S. troops in Japan known as the Sympathy budget.