Why Japan is sharing its guarded Mogami warship design with India

Common security interests in the region have led to Japan’s unprecedented sharing of its Mogami-class warships with India, according to analysts. The move dovetails with New Delhi’s drive to localise industrial and defence production. Enhanced naval capabilities will also allow India to become a “security provider” in the Indian Ocean. Japan offered India its Mogami design plans and the option to build the frigates in Indian shipyards using Japanese materials, according to recent reports from local media and defence news outlets. The warships, each costing about US$500 million, will be equipped with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles and torpedoes. It is the first time Japan has offered such a major weapons system to India, signifying a shift towards deeper defence industrial cooperation. Such ties between the two countries are increasing, particularly after Tokyo loosened the reins this month. On April 21, the Japanese cabinet revised the rules restricting exports of defence equipment and technology. “With this partial revision of the Three Principles on Transfer of Defence Equipment and Technology and related rules, it has now become possible, in principle, to permit the transfer of defence equipment, including all finished products,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters following a national security meeting. Purnendra Jain, an emeritus professor of Asian studies at the University of Adelaide, said the co-production agreement aligned with the “Make in India” campaign and Delhi’s push for domestic industrial and defence production. “[India also] aims to diversify suppliers in the global market,” Jain said, pointing to Delhi’s “growing appetite” for military modernisation. In the security context, the campaign is targeted at transforming India into a global defence manufacturing hub by fostering self-reliance, domestic production and reducing import dependency. India has sought to reduce its reliance on Russia as its main defence supplier in recent years by turning to Western suppliers, including the United States and France. However, “the devil is in the details”, Jain said, since the Mogami offer has yet to be officially confirmed by both governments. For instance, Japan’s earlier attempts to sell ShinMaywa US-2 amphibious aircraft to India for rescue and surveillance purposes fell through due to costs and technology transfer issues. Shared interests India’s status as a maritime nation with a long coastline, securing the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, was highly relevant to Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific concept (FOIP), said Srabani Roy Choudhury, a professor of Japanese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. “The sharing of cutting-edge defence design and co-production sends signals that Japan’s promise of ‘indispensable partnership with India’ stands intact even under the new Japanese prime minister,” Choudhury said. Launched in 2016 aimed at upholding a rules-based international order, the FOIP promotes freedom of navigation, rule of law and free trade in the region. The Mogami deal could also attract more of such collaborations with France and Germany by showing India’s strength as a reliable, hi-tech defence manufacturing hub, she added. Japan was concerned about China’s expansion into the Indian Ocean, which it saw as a critical sea lane for its economy, said Satoru Nagao, a non-resident fellow specialising in Indo-Pacific security at Hudson Institute. China has deployed submarines to the region and consistently keeps seven to eight naval vessels there, according to Nagao. If Japan and the US were to send warships to the Indian Ocean, they would not be able to deploy enough naval assets to the Pacific. “Therefore, [Japan] wants India to be the security provider for the security of the Indian Ocean,” Nagao said. One way to ensure this would be to help India improve its naval capabilities. Mogami-class frigates are specifically designed with high anti-submarine warfare capabilities to track, hunt and deter hostile submarines. Apart from being advanced, stealth-focused, multi-mission warships designed for high automation, they require a crew of only about 90 – nearly half that of similar-sized vessels. Japan and India also agreed in November 2024 to jointly develop the Unified Complex Radio Antenna (Unicorn) that can help improve the stealth capabilities of the Mogami-class frigates. Nagao said if Japan, Australia and India were to deploy the same Mogami-class frigates, it would become easier to conduct joint exercises. “They could also perform maintenance on each other’s warships in their respective ports,” he added. Australia and Japan signed an agreement on April 18 to deliver the first three of a US$6.5 billion fleet of Japanese-designed warships, with the first due for delivery in three years. Coming close on the heels of the Japan-Australia agreement, the Mogami proposal will help strengthen India’s strategic maritime objectives, according to Dattesh Parulekar, an assistant professor at Goa University’s School of International and Area Studies. The vessel’s state-of-the-art capacity would provide “productive deterrence and effective surveillance” for the Indian navy. Apart from signalling “Tokyo’s emergence as a defence manufacturing [hub]”, the collaboration would serve as “an anchor of strategic stability in the Indian Ocean and wider Indo-Pacific”, he added.

Why Japan is sharing its guarded Mogami warship design with India

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tokyo has offered to give Delhi the plans to its US$500-million Mogami-class ship so that it can be built in India using Japanese materials

Tokyo has offered to give Delhi the plans to its US$500-million Mogami-class ship so that it can be built in India using Japanese materials