Japan Press Weekly

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2026 September 16 - 29 [POLITICS]

US-made unmanned reconnaissance aircraft costing 20 billion yen crashes

An RQ-4B Global Hawk (GH) unmanned reconnaissance aircraft belonging to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s Misawa Air Base (Aomori Pref.) crashed off the coast of Tottori Prefecture on September 15.

Each GH costs approximately 20 billion yen. Including maintenance costs, the total cost over a 20-year operational period is estimated to reach 149.8 billion yen. Since the SDF possesses three GHs, the total operational cost for the three amounts to 444.3 billion yen.

In December 2016, the Ministry of Defense decided to procure GHs. The late Prime Minister Abe at that time, in line with a demand from U.S. President Trump, increased the bulk purchase of U.S.-made weapons. U.S.-based Northrop Grumman manufactured the GH airframe and U.K.-based Rolls Royce made the engines. Because the GH’s core components are classified, only the U.S. side performs maintenance, resulting in high technical support costs.

Currently, other countries’ territories are primarily surveilled by high-altitude satellites and low-altitude small unmanned aerial vehicles, which are far less expensive than GHs. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Defense plans to continue operating the GHs that the SDF has in its possession.

Spending of taxpayer money to maintain this “negative legacy” of the Abe government is wasteful and unacceptable.