Congress was notified of a potential sale of four Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes and supporting equipment to Japan, State Department officials told USNI News on Tuesday.
The four information, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, extra engines and radars are part of a $1.7 billion foreign military sales (FMS) case to add the Advanced Hawkeyes to the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force’s (JMSDF) fleet of existing E-2C Hawkeyes.
“The proposed sale of E-2D AHE aircraft will improve Japan’s airspace and maritime domain awareness by utilizing an Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) capability. Japan will use the E-2D AHE aircraft to provide AEW&C situational awareness of air and naval activity in the Pacific region and to augment its existing E-2C Hawkeye AEW&C fleet,” David McKeeby with the State Department told USNI News in a Tuesday statement.
Pending Congressional approval, the scope of the sale would include the four aircraft, ten T56-A-427A engines eight Multifunction Information Distribution System Low Volume Terminals (MIDS-LVT) and four APY-9 Radars.
Japan currently fields more than a dozen Hawkeyes and the Ministry of Defense announced late last year its intention to purchase the advanced Hawkeyes over the Boeing 737 AEW&C “Wedgetail” currently fielded by Australia, South Korea and Turkey.
In May, Congress received a similar notification for a potential $3 billon sale of 17 Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and support equipment to Japan
The U.S. Navy’s first operational deployment of E-2Ds is currently underway as part of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (CSG) and is a key component in the Navy’s Naval Integrated Fire Control Counter Air (NIFC-CA) construct.
