Should Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and its Mogami-class frigate win Australia’s General Purpose Frigate program, the company is prepared to hand over the intellectual property to Canberra, a result of a major push by Japan’s government, Breaking Defense reports.
The hope in Tokyo is that the sharing of IP will help secure the Mogami’s win, which would represent Japan’s first major weapons export since World War II, marking a sharp turn from 80 years of strictly defensive weapons development aimed only at the Japanese Self-Defense Force.