On 19 January 2024 the Ground Material Control Command (GMCC) of the Japanese Ground Self Defence Force (JGSDF) announced competitive tenders for concept demonstrations of two types of small transport uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV).
Bidding for the contracts, which is limited to Unified Supplier Qualification A and B ranked companies, will take place on the morning of 22 February 2024. A second round for postal bids is scheduled for 29 February.
The announcement came after the JGSDF’s Ground Staff Office issued requests for proposals late April 2023 for a small transport UAV system, along with two small attack UAVs. In the same month the GMCC announced plans to procure a medium transport UAV.
The new tenders also follow a recent budget update from the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The latest Comprehensive Defence Capability Strengthening: Progress and Budget report, issued in December 2023, estimates spending on ‘unmanned asset’ programs will reach ¥116.9 billion (roughly $1.2 billion) in 2024, with the biggest winner being unmanned airborne and sea surface Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (ISRT) platforms (¥52 billion = $533 million). Roughly ¥900 million ($9.2 million) has been earmarked for demonstrations for transport UAVs that can ‘quickly deliver supplies to forces deployed across a wide area’.
The uptick in drone-related tenders reflects a recent strategic shift which has seen ‘utilizing drones’ become one of the core pivots of the JSDF’s ‘new warfare’ doctrine. The December MOD report states ‘Aside from being an innovative game changer, unmanned assets limit human losses while creating opportunities for seizing an asymmetric advantage in the air, sea surface and underwater… rapidly acquiring and beginning to utilise unmanned assets is a necessity.’
In addition to drawing lessons from the Russia-Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh wars, this doctrinal shift has been motivated by chronic personnel shortages, with Japan’s demographic decline threatening to accentuate a decade-long 30% drop in JSDF applications, as well as a demand to leverage asymmetric capabilities to respond to China’s military rise.
Since November 2023 the GMCC has invited bids for a diverse array of UAV-related projects including capability upgrades for reconnaissance drones, concept demonstrations for a multi-role fixed wing UAV, and technical investigations on communications-electronics for disaster response UAVs.