Japan paying $33 million more for each locally-assembled F-35A

According to Jane’s, Japan is paying an extra $33 million to assemble a F-35A at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) facility in Nagoya.

Senior leaders of Japan’s Ministry of Defense, U.S. Forces Japan, Pacific Air Forces and Lockheed Martin gather in a Japan Air Self-Defense Force hangar at Misawa Air Base, Japan, for the commemorative ceremony welcoming the first operational F-35A Lightning II to JASDF's 3rd Air Wing, Feb. 24, 2018. The F-35A is the second assembled at Mitsubishi’s facility in Nagoya, Japan. Regional leaders from Misawa City and Aomori Prefecture also attended the ceremony. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Benjamin W. Stratton) — Senior leaders of Japan’s Ministry of Defense, U.S. Forces Japan, Pacific Air Forces and Lockheed Martin gather in a Japan Air Self-Defense Force hangar at Misawa Air Base, Japan, for the commemorative ceremony welcoming the first operational F-35A Lightning II to JASDF’s 3rd Air Wing, Feb. 24, 2018. The F-35A is the second assembled at Mitsubishi’s facility in Nagoya, Japan. Regional leaders from Misawa City and Aomori Prefecture also attended the ceremony. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Benjamin W. Stratton)

The publication quoted a Japanese defense official as saying that price of each jet “depends greatly on the foreign exchange rate of each fiscal year [and] the difference in procurement methods between importing completed F-35s from the US and assembling F-35s in the Japanese FACO facility.”

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