The Defense Ministry is looking to buy three Global Hawk reconnaissance aircraft from the United States to deal with China's militarization and North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Self-Defense Force and ministry sources said Sunday.
The ministry hopes to insert the plan for buying the unmanned high-altitude aircraft into its new Mid-Term Defense Program for fiscal 2011-2015. The program will be based on a new National Defense Program Outline the government is poised to adopt at the end of this year.
Equipped with sophisticated cameras and highly sensitive communications-receiving abilities, the Global Hawk can fly at an altitude of roughly 18,000 meters — about twice as high as commercial aircraft can — for just over 30 hours on autopilot.