Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) is currently engaged in discussions with Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) on the prospects of acquiring the Kawasaki K-Racer medium-sized transport unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a company representative told ADM in Chiba, Japan, on Friday.
The K-Racer has been the subject of growing attention since a successful autonomous cargo loading/unloading demonstration at Nankai Rescue 2024, a US-Japan bilateral disaster relief training and policy implementation trial hosted on Japan’s Awaji island in mid January. Since that time the company has entered into preliminary discussions on the potential procurement of the asset with the ministry, its Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA), and different arms of the Japanese Self Defense Force (JSDF), according to the source.
Company representatives, speaking at the DSEI Japan 2025 defence and security exhibition, noted that major selling points were the platform’s 200 kg payload, the largest of this platform’s class, its capacity to lift 100 kg of cargo as high as 3,000 metres, which expands access across Japan’s mountainous geography, as well as cost, supply and maintenance advantages.
Pivotal to the latter was the platform’s engine – a diesel powered, 998 cc in-line supercharged four-cylinder Kawasaki Ninja H2R. The choice of the Ninja H2R features in Kawasaki’s current closed-course motorbike range. This gives K-Racer operators the advantage of being able to tap into a pre-existing large-scale production line, allowing for ease of maintenance, spare part procurement and replacement, the company representative told ADM.
The seven-metre long airframe also has a foldable tail and can be transported in standard 20 feet and 40 feet shipping containers, facilitating ease of transport. The control system is hardware agnostic, with a user-friendly interface designed to reduce training time and decrease user error. The autonomous loading and unloading feature reduced manpower requirements – an increasing priority in the Ministry of Defense, which has faced persistent recruitment shortfalls.
Expanding the role and volume of unmanned and automated systems was a key theme in the 2022 National Defence Strategy and has been reinforced in the concurrently released Defense Buildup Program, and last December’s Ministry of Defense 2025 Outline of Budgetary Appropriation Requests.
Transportation and logistics drones have been identified in each of these doctrine as a priority, with the Japanese Ground Self Defence Force (JGSDF) recently agreeing to test US firm Elroy Air’s Chaparrel supply and logistics drone, committing 1.2 billion yen (roughly A$13 million) to fast-track research and testing on a transport drone, and announcing the development of a transport-capable multi-purpose drone prototype.