Japan has signed a contract to buy Ukrainian SkyFall interceptor drones, defence minister says

Japan's Ministry of Defense has already signed a contract to acquire interceptor drones from the Ukrainian company SkyFall and is working to have them delivered as early as possible, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on 9 October. He made the remarks at his regular news conference after a cabinet meeting in Tokyo, in reply to a question about Ukrainian drones.

The question followed a visit to Kyiv at the start of October by Itsunori Onodera, a former defence minister and senior lawmaker in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, during which it emerged that the Japanese government planned to bring in Ukrainian-made drones on a trial basis. Onodera told reporters there that Ukrainian officials had briefed him on Russia's growing use of jet-powered attack drones and on how hard it is for Ukraine to counter ballistic missiles, and that Kyiv wanted to work with Japan on drone interception technology.

Model not named

Koizumi did not say which model or variant Japan has ordered, how many drones the contract covers or what it is worth, the Ukrainian defence outlet Militarnyi noted. SkyFall builds the P1-SUN interceptor drone in several versions, including one fitted with an artificial intelligence module and a faster JetKiller variant designed to bring down jet-powered drones, according to Militarnyi and RBC-Ukraine.

In late September the company released footage of a P1-SUN JetKiller destroying a Russian Geran-5 jet-powered drone, Militarnyi reported.

Lessons from the front

Asked what Japan hoped to gain from Ukrainian drones and technical cooperation, Koizumi said Ukraine had built up more experience than any other country in what he called new ways of fighting, while rapidly raising its ability to sustain combat. He pointed to what he described as a rapid feedback cycle, in which drones with new capabilities appear every two to three weeks and can be produced continuously, and said Japan had much to learn from this both for nurturing its defence industry and for its industrial base.

He said Japan would look carefully at specific equipment as it considers the deterrence and response capabilities it needs. The government is reviewing its three core security documents with the aim of revising them within this year, he said earlier in the same news conference.

No weapons transfer to Ukraine

Koizumi also said the government is not currently considering transferring weapons to Ukraine as defined under the Self-Defense Forces Act, after a reporter noted that Kyiv has expressed hopes of receiving Patriot air defence missiles that Japan builds under US licence. Japan revised its rules on defence equipment transfers in April to lift broad restrictions on arms exports, including a provision allowing exports to countries engaged in fighting in exceptional circumstances, the reporter said.

Koizumi said the ministry's determination to support Ukraine against Russian aggression was unchanged, and that Japan would keep providing equipment it is able to supply, having already sent Self-Defense Forces vehicles and bulletproof vests and accepted wounded Ukrainian soldiers for treatment. He added that the two governments would stay in close communication.