Japan Agrees To Build Warships For Australia Worth IDR 163.7 Trillion

Illustration of defense equipment for Japanese-made warships. (Arron Choi-Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Japan reached a historic agreement with Australia regarding a warship-building project worth US$10 billion or Rp163.7 trillion.

The deal marks Japan's important defense industry's ability to produce defense and security tools since the military's 2014 export ban, a step away from postwar passiveism.

"This will be very important in terms of providing our navy with the ability to project, and projections that have an impact are at the heart of this strategic challenge," Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said at a briefing, Tuesday, August 5, quoted by Reuters.

Under the agreement, Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will certainly supply the Australian Navy (AL) with a multi-role Mogami-grade frigate that has been upgraded starting in 2029.

Designed to hunt submarines, attack surface ships, and provide air defenses, this Japanese-produced warship for Australia is highly automated, it can be operated by only 90 sailors, less than half of the crew needed for current ships.

Australia plans to deploy its new military ships to maintain important maritime trade routes and its approach areas north of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, where China often shows its military capabilities.

The creation of this agreement changed the relationship between the Japanese-Australian military industry in the past. Australia had chosen the French submarine program rather than the sunrise country because of the design.

Australia canceled the project in 2023, and chose to build a nuclear-powered submarine with the United States and Britain under the AUKUS pact.