Japan's Defense Ministry has requested a record budget of 8.8 trillion yen (51.3 billion euros), within which it wants to significantly strengthen its drone arsenal, Agence France-Presse reported. BTA reported.
The budget presented today aims to respond to the "significantly deteriorating security situation".
In recent years, Japan has abandoned its strict pacifist stance, moving towards acquiring "counterattack capabilities" and doubling its military spending. They are planned to reach 2% of the country's GDP by 2027.
The budget requested by the defense ministry exceeds the previous record of 8.7 trillion yen for the world's fourth-largest economy for the current fiscal year.
Eighty years after World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan's constitution still limits its military capabilities to clearly defensive measures. However, the new budget increase reflects the "significantly deteriorating security situation" around the archipelago, a defense ministry official said in Tokyo.
The budget request also includes a request for 313 billion yen (1.8 billion euros) in investment in unmanned vehicles, both air and sea. The war in Ukraine has shown the destructive power of drones, which are becoming an increasingly important tool in modern warfare, AFP notes.