{"id":42885,"date":"2026-06-28T16:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T16:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/42885\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T16:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T16:54:13","slug":"khi-and-airbus-eye-cooperation-on-japanese-variant-of-eurodrone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/42885\/","title":{"rendered":"KHI and Airbus eye cooperation on Japanese variant of Eurodrone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan\u2019s Kawasaki Heavy Industries has signed a preliminary agreement with Airbus to cooperate on a possible Japanese anti-submarine version of a European defense drone.<\/p>\n

KHI inked a memorandum of understanding with Airbus to \u201canalyze opportunities\u201d for the new variant of the U950 Eurodrone, Europe\u2019s first large long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft system, the European aerospace firm said in a statement late Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Japan has held observer status in the Eurodrone program since 2023.<\/p>\n

KHI said in a separate statement that it would examine the possibility of operating the aircraft alongside P-1 patrol planes, for which it is the prime contractor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The envisioned version of the drone could help address the Maritime Self-Defense Force\u2019s chronic workforce shortages<\/a> and make surveillance missions more efficient.<\/p>\n

The move was first reported by the Nikkei business daily, which said the proposal would later be presented to Japan\u2019s Defense Ministry.<\/p>\n

The Japanese government last year approved a \u00a5128.7 billion ($812 million) Defense Ministry plan to build a \u201cdrone shield\u201d<\/a> \u2014 a multilayered coastal defense system incorporating both uncrewed assets and standoff defense capabilities to protect the country\u2019s southwestern periphery.<\/p>\n

Tokyo is also currently in the middle of revising its three key national security documents, which are expected to lay out plans for boosting domestic drone production, as the use of the weapons grows<\/a> following the eruption of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The tie-up comes amid the Chinese military\u2019s growing assertiveness in the waters and airspace around Japan and near democratic Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.<\/p>\n

China has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe importance of long-endurance unmanned aerial systems has been increasing in recent years, in line with changes in the security environment,\u201d KHI said.<\/p>\n

A formal agreement to build a Japanese version of the defense drone could potentially prove a boon for the country\u2019s defense industry.<\/p>\n

Airbus said it will hold discussions with KHI \u201cto develop options for the design, development and commercialization\u201d for the drone, \u201cincluding the definition of possible configurations, integration of Japanese sensors and effectors, and other potential workshare for Japanese industry during production and sustainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aerospace giant said that the Eurodrone \u201cis ideally suited for countries like Japan that need to monitor large maritime areas,\u201d noting its long flight endurance and 2.3-ton mission payload, which would allow it to carry sonobuoys and torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201ctargeted collaboration\u201d could also help deepen the strategic framework of European-Japanese defense initiatives, Airbus said, with insights gained from developing a Japanese variant \u201cexpected to provide substantial operational and logistical advantages for future European naval versions of Eurodrone.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Eurodrone program currently involves France, Germany, Italy and Spain. India is also an observer. The aircraft is scheduled to take its first flight in 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Kawasaki Heavy Industries has signed a preliminary agreement with Airbus to cooperate on a possible Japanese anti-submarine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13021],"tags":[4616,1165,735,8116,796,29208,29207],"class_list":["post-42885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-airbus","tag-airbus","tag-china","tag-defense","tag-defense-ministry","tag-drones","tag-kawasaki-heavy","tag-sdf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}