India-Japan Defense Ties Quietly Reaching New Heights

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All three Indian and Japanese military services – army, naval and air – held bilateral exercises in 2023, including the inaugural Veer Guardian 2023, which took place at Japan's Hyakuri Air Base.

The ministers also agreed to update and amend the joint declaration on security cooperation that Japan and India first signed in October 2008“to reflect contemporary priorities and be responsive to contemporary security challenges facing them.” Areas of collaborative priority will include cyber and space.

Perhaps more sensitively to China, the ministers also discussed the transfer of Japan's latest radar technology, now utilized by the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force's Mogami-class multirole frigate, to India.

Moreover, the ministers made progress in the export of Japan's“Unified Complex Radio Antenna”, or UNICORN system, an antenna mast that includes sensors and transponders for communications, electronic warfare and navigation, to India's navy.

Japan's Mogami-class frigate's bridge is now outfitted with UNICORN and a Nora-50 integration mast, a horn-shaped structure comprised of numerous antennas for tactical data links, TACAN (Tactical Air Navigation System) and communications.

UNICORN reduces the radar cross-section (RCS) of the antennas by stacking numerous antennas on top of one another, enclosing the entire system in one structure, making it stealthy.

Japanese Defense Minister Kihara said he approved the UNICORN transfer with a grant totaling approximately 1.5 billion ye (US$10.3 million), the first of its kind under Tokyo's new Defense Equipment Transfer Facilitation Fund.

If and when transferred to India, it will mark Japan's second key defense equipment export under the fund, the first being the export of air surveillance radar systems to the Philippines, which likewise will be deployed to counter China's aggression in the region.

India is known to be pursuing high-end military and other technology transfers from strategic partners, including Quad members the United States, Australia and Japan. Meanwhile, Japan's 2022 National Security Strategy explicitly emphasizes expanding security cooperation with India.

It's a delicate balancing act for both as India maintains policies of“strategic autonomy” and non-aligned diplomacy, both of which refrain from forming alliances with other nations, and Japan maintains a pacificist constitution that is at increasing odds with the country's remilitarization.