The
14 August 2014 hardcopy Yomiuri reports that Japan and South Korea will be competing
for a maintenance contract for the U.S. Marine’s Ospreys in the Asia-Pacific
region1. According to the report, the Ospreys, first deployed to the
Futenma Base in Okinawa in 2012, must be taken apart every three years for full
inspection and overhaul, so the competitive bidding will be held this autumn. The
Japanese government will be deploying its own JSDF Ospreys beginning in FY2019,
and hopes to keep maintenance costs down by servicing US Ospreys as well. It
does not believe that it will be politically feasible to have the JSDF Ospreys
serviced in South Korea, whose government will provide all out support for a South
Korean company’s bid.
A
couple of thoughts. South Korea does not have any Ospreys of its own nor, apparently,
any plans to acquire them. So is this a replication of South Korea’s belated
(and successful) bid for the 2002 FIFA World Cup? It’s possible; if this were
Sankei that had picked on this story, it almost surely would include that twist.
But South Korea’s prospective bid does make sense in its own right, as it
would, if successful, enhance, albeit in a minor way, its own bilateral alliance
with the United States.
It
would be a nice and potentially fruitful political gesture by the Japanese
government in the event of a successful South Korean bid to extend a hand and
ask that the South Korean facilities be used for the JSDF Ospreys as well. If
the South Korean government takes that hand, it will be a huge symbolic step
forward in the Japan-U.S.-South Korea security relationship, not to mention the
overall bilateral relationship. If, as is likely, it slaps it away, Japan will
have lost nothing while South Korea looks peevish and unproductive. Not that I
see any of this happening.
1.
It made it to the front page, though. It’s the middle of August, which means slow
times for news stories, barring a major accident or two.
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