Conflict & Security April 14, 2026 388 stories in this edition

Should China be worried as Japan starts replacing helicopters with drones?

SCMP Asia / Asia / 1m ago / Alcott Wei
Should China be worried as Japan starts replacing helicopters with drones?

Preview Brief

Japan is planning to replace some of its attack helicopters with multipurpose drones, prompting warnings from some Chinese media outlets and analysts that this could be seen as a hostile move. The country’s defence budget, which took effect on April 7 for this financial year, allocates 11.1 billion yen (US$70 million) for the procurement of five wide-area unmanned aerial vehicles. A further 280 billion yen was alloca...

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Japan is planning to replace some of its attack helicopters with multipurpose drones, prompting warnings from some Chinese media outlets and analysts that this could be seen as a hostile move. The country’s defence budge...

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