Japan Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said during a press briefing on December 8 that the Japanese government is planing to arm its Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth multirole aircraft with Joint Strike Missile (JSM).
Onodera said the plan is to arm Japnese F-35 with JSM as stand-off missiles.
“The JSM is a long-distance anti-ship missile designed to take on high value, heavily defended targets. The long standoff range (distance from the aircraft to the target) ensures that the aircraft and pilots remain out of harm’s way,” Raytheon said in its website.
“It is the only fifth-generation cruise missile that will be integrated on the F-35 and also available for integration on other aircraft intended for offensive anti-surface warfare (OASuW) applications,” Raytheon added.
The JSM is a partnership between Raytheon Company and Norwegian defense company Kongsberg Gruppen.
Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) officially received its first F-35 in November last year at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, USA. Japan has the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, F-35A.