Ukraine ’s use of drone technology against the Russian onslaught is being keenly watched by Japan ’s military, which has been assessing adding attack drones to its arsenal amid a debate on whether such a move would contravene the country’s position of only operating defensive weapons.
That change will be reflected in three security policy documents to be released in the coming months: the National Security Strategy, the updated Defence Guidelines and the Medium-Term Defence Programme. Drones have proved effective in identifying Russian units, permitting Ukrainian artillery to target concentrations of armour, artillery or missile batteries, as well as coordinating attacks on convoys transporting much-needed logistics to front-line units.
As early as 2015, Japanese defence officials requested a private meeting with a number of Israeli drone developers and were understood to have been impressed by what they saw.