Photo/Illutration A C-17 military transport aircraft (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told U.S. President Donald Trump that Japan wants to buy U.S.-made C-17 military transport aircraft, government sources said, which was music to the president’s ears.

However, the C-17 went out of production a decade ago, so any purchases would have to be made secondhand.  

During a Feb. 7 summit in Washington, Ishiba asked if it is possible to purchase the massive transport aircraft, which can carry tanks and helicopters, the sources said.

A “Buy American” policy advocate, Trump welcomed the proposal, the sources said.

The Trump administration expects U.S. allies and friends to increase procurement of American-made defense equipment to reduce the country’s trade deficits.

In 2018, during Trump’s first term, the Abe administration agreed to purchase 105 additional F-35 fighter jets from the United States.

The C-17 is larger than the Japanese-made C-2 and U.S.-made C-130, transport aircraft deployed by the Self-Defense Forces. Its carrying capacity is more than twice the C-2’s.

Britain, Australia, Canada and India are among the countries that are deploying the C-17.

The government has not yet received any response from the U.S. side, the sources said.

A defense expert, Ishiba has called for acquiring the C-17 since the 2000s, when he served as director-general of the Defense Agency, predecessor of the Defense Ministry, and as defense minister.

He argues that the SDF must possess large transport aircraft because it had to borrow Russia’s Antonov aircraft to send goods to Iraq, where the SDF was dispatched during the 2000s.

But the Defense Ministry and the SDF are cautious about the idea.

Boeing Co., which discontinued manufacturing the aircraft in 2015, is not expected to reopen the production lines.

A senior Defense Ministry official said it will be difficult to procure secondhand C-17s because the United States has no intention of parting with those being deployed.

Many bases are not equipped with long, high-strength runaways that can handle landings and takeoffs of large and heavy aircraft such as the C-17.

The C-17 is also expected to require substantial maintenance costs because it is out of production.

Although the Defense Ministry conveyed those concerns to Ishiba multiple times before the Japan-U.S. summit, the prime minister did not relent, a senior Defense Ministry official said.

A former defense minister dismissed Ishiba’s C-17 proposal as something from the “personal interests” of an “adamant” prime minister.

(This article was written by Mizuki Sato and Nobuhiko Tajima.)

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