Major Japan defence firms stepping up drone development

Major Japanese defence companies such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are stepping up their development of drones as the government seeks to make unmanned systems and artificial intelligence a central part of its new defence strategy.The push reflects a global race to develop drones, whose role in warfare has expanded dramatically since Russia invaded Ukraine. But their growing use has also raised concerns over civilian casualties and damage to critical infrastructure.In Japan, partnerships between defence contractors and civilian drone makers have come under scrutiny, putting public acceptance of the industry’s shift toward unmanned warfare in question.Mitsubishi Heavy said in May that it had developed a prototype interceptor drone capable of shooting down incoming attack drones.“We developed it in just three months through close collaboration between our research and business divisions,” Mitsubishi Heavy President Eisaku Ito said.The company can move to mass production faster than startups by drawing on its existing expertise, including helicopter technology, he said.The rapid pace of innovation is being fuelled in part by data and battlefield experience from actual conflicts. Mitsubishi Heavy plans to produce a variety of drones in small batches and continually revise their specifications, Ito said.Kawasaki Heavy Industries is working with European aircraft maker Airbus SE on an unmanned aircraft equipped with Kawasaki Heavy’s submarine-detection and monitoring system.The companies are considering pitching the system to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.Startups, including Tokyo-based Terra Drone, are also racing to develop defence products.Rakuten Group, meanwhile, has teamed up with a German startup to help the Defence Ministry introduce drones.The partnership has drawn criticism from mail-order magazine publisher Catalog House, which said the move conflicted with its corporate philosophy and subsequently pulled its products from Rakuten Ichiba, Rakuten’s online marketplace.The Japanese government has embraced the shift. Its 2026 defence white paper says countries are pursuing “new ways of warfare” and calls for the active adoption of cutting-edge private-sector technology to strengthen Japan’s defence industrial base. KYODO NEWS