Japan to double its air force's missile payload in response to rising tensions with China

Japan's Defense Ministry is expected to make a request for increased funding to increase the weapons payload of its F-15 fighter jets, due to the increasing frequency of Chinese manoeuvrers near a disputed chain islands, according to media reports.

The Nikkei Asian Review reports the ministry as wanting to double the number of air-to-air missile capacity of the Air Self-Defense Force's (JASDF) multi-role jets and lengthen the aircraft's lifespans after a surge in the number of Chinese warplanes deployed to the waters around the Senkaku Islands, in the southernmost Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. China also claims the islands, calling them the Diaoyu.

China's increasingly aggressive posturing over the islands has escalated tension in the region. Last December, an armed Chinese coastguard vessel was reported to have intentionally sailed into Japanese territorial waters, the 35th incursion by Chinese vessels that year and the first by an armed ship. Chinese brinkmanship continued this year and as recently as June this year a Chinese frigate entered Japanese territorial waters, prompting a diplomatic row.

JASDF jets have been scrambled 199 times between April and June in response to Chinese maneuvers - a 75% increase from the same period last year.

Recently, Chinese jets have been flying further south, near the contested islands. "As the cruising range of Chinese military aircraft has gotten longer, they are coming ever closer to our territories," a Japanese Defense Ministry official said.

The ASDF plans to deploy fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighters by the end of 2017, but the first F-35s will likely be deployed to the calmer North of Japan at first, to allow pilots to carry out type conversions to fly the new high-tech warplanes.