Amphibious start

The final major purchase announcement was also the quietest. The Tokyo Nikkei Shimbun reported that the Ministry of Defense had firmed up plans to buy 52 BAE Systems AAV7A1 amphibious vehicles over the coming two years.

The Ground Self-Defense Force has been conducting tests with a provisional fleet of AAV7s as part of Tokyo’s effort to establish a 2,000-strong Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade.

The provisional fleet consists of four AAV7 infantry carriers that Japan purchased from the U.S. Marine Corps in the 2013 fiscal year. The ministry also planned to acquire one command variant and one recovery variant this year for tests, but it’s not clear whether the Ground Self-Defense Force has received these variants yet.

Tokyo Nikkei Shimbun also reported that Tokyo will purchase 30 of the swimming vehicles in the coming financial year, then another 22 by 2016. In total, the Ground Self-Defense Force will receive 42 personnel carriers, five command variants and five recovery vehicles.

The fleet is expected to enter service no later than 2017.

The large AAV7 fleet will boost the government’s efforts to create an amphibious force capable of defending the Nansei islands in Japan’s southwest.

But in press conferences last winter, journalists repeatedly questioned the decision to accelerate the purchase. If Tokyo Nikkei Shimbun’s report is true, then the Ministry of Defense has expanded the AAV7 acquisition despite having had no or little time to review the command and recovery variants.

This haste suggests that Japan is increasingly worried about the remote islands along its maritime border with China, but the government denies this is the case. “We are not specifying a country or a specific security situation in this case,” then-defense minister Itsunori Onodera said in January.

The Sasebo-based Western Army Infantry Regiment—which will form the backbone of the new amphibious unit—has been training in the U.S. Marine Corps for a decade now, giving the regiment great familiarity with the AAV7.

One of major remaining obstacles to a functional amphibious capability is a lack of shared experience between the Ground and Maritime Self-Defense Forces. The Western Army Infantry Regiment completed its first joint amphibious exercise with the navy in May.

The new amphibious force will act as a rapid response unit—and it will need reinforcements from other army units. The Maritime Self-Defense Force currently lacks the transportation capabilities to deploy heavier armor and units to Japan’s remote islands.

At the moment, Japan relies on civilian ferries to transport armor from the north of Japan to training grounds in Kyushu.

To improve their deployment capabilities, this summer the Ministry of Defense confirmed that they would upgrade Japan’s three Osumi-class landing ships to carry the AAV7 and Osprey.

It also begun planning “a multirole ship capable of command and control, large-scale transportation and aviation use for amphibious operations.” The ministry should begin defining the specifications of this new vessel in the next financial year.