The Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Wednesday announced the possible deal, which could change in quantity and contract value during the negotiations process.

The potential sale, which now goes to Congress for consideration, would also include 26 Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines for the aircraft, an upgrade to the Block 4 standard, as well as cryptographic appliques and electronic warfare support.

If approved, the sale will bring South Korea’s fleet to 65 F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. The country’s Air Force is currently in the process of taking delivery of 40 F-35As it previously ordered to equip its 17th Fighter Wing at Cheongju.

South Korea is using its F-35As to replace it fleet of McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II fighter jets. It had previously considered buying the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant to equip its planned aircraft carrier.

However, the Defense Ministry said earlier this year it is looking at the feasibility of building a 50,000-ton aircraft carrier, which is considerably larger than originally planned. Such a ship would enable the South Koreans to operate catapult-launched carrier aircraft instead of the F-35B. This would likely be a naval version of the locally designed Korea Aerospace Industries KF-21 Boramae fighter. South Korea’s defense acquisition agency concluded in January that developing a carrierborne KF-21 was feasible within a 10-year time frame.

South Korea is technically still at war with its nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea, as the two countries have not signed a formal peace treaty following the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.

Under the potential deal, the U.S. ally would buy 50 Lockheed Martin AGM-158B/B-2 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles with Extended Range through the Foreign Military Sales program, according to an Aug. 28 announcement by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

The planned sale, which the DSCA said is worth $104 million, will also include JASSM anti-jam GPS receivers, training missiles, as well as other spares and support equipment.

“The proposed sale will improve Japan’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing stand-off capability via advanced, long-range strike systems for employment on Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) fighter aircraft including but not limited to the F-15J,” the agency added.

The proposed sale now goes before Congress, during which quantities and price tags can change.

Japan plans to upgrade 68 of its Mitsubishi-built F-15J Eagle interceptors with new radars, mission computers and a standoff land-attack capability. The country had specifically planned for the JASSM weapon to provide the latter capability for its upgraded jets.

The Asian nation also plans to operate a future fleet of 147 F-35 jets that can employ the JASSM. Japan is currently on track to be the largest non-U.S. operator of the fifth-generation stealth fighter.

The AGM-158B JASSM-ER can deliver a 1,000-pound warhead up to 575 miles away, while the longer-range AGM-158B-2 has a warhead weighing 2,000 pounds with a range of 1,200 miles.

Other Japanese media outlets have reported the country is considering fitting a standoff missile capability on its Kawasaki C-2 airlifters, with the JASSM and the U.S. Air Force’s Rapid Dragon system cited as a possible option.

Japan has sought to acquire long-range land-attack capabilities in recent years as it seeks the capability to strike at potential threats as well as counter North Korean ballistic missiles or attempts by an adversary to seize Japan’s southern islands.

It had previously avoided acquiring such capabilities, as it deemed them too aggressive and in violation of its pacifist post-war constitution, which limited Japan’s self-defense forces to possessing capabilities required only for defending the Japanese mainland.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration, or DAPA, said the Defense Project Promotion Committee approved a $2.85 billion plan to buy more Lockheed Martin-made F-35A fighter jets. South Korea is to receive the aircraft by 2028.

DAPA did not state how many more F-35As the military will acquire under the latest plan, although South Korea received the U.S. State Department’s approval for 60 F-35As in 2013 and has already ordered 40.

The committee also gave approval for the first of a two-phase, $582.8 million plan to acquire the Raytheon Technologies-made SM-6 air defense missile to equip a second batch of KDX-III destroyers equipped with the Aegis weapons system. The missiles will be used for air defense and to counter ballistic missiles for the 8,200-ton ships, which currently operate the SM-2.

South Korea has three KDX-III destroyers from its first batch, which are also known as Sejong the Great-class ships, in service with its Navy. The ROKS Jeongjo the Great, which will be the lead ship of the second batch, was launched in July 2022 and is expected to enter service in 2024.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry also confirmed it still wants to develop an aircraft carrier. The local SBS news outlet reported that the ministry responded to inquiries from a parliamentarian that it will soon start feasibility studies into the prospects of building a 50,000-ton design.

The ministry had told Jung Sung-ho, who sits on the parliament’s National Defense Committee, that it would also be possible to develop a carrierborne variant of the KF-21 fighter, locally made by Korean Aerospace Industries, within a decade if the government allocates sufficient funding.

South Korea previously floated the idea of developing a 30,000-ton class carrier for operating the F-35B, the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter. But a larger ship from which the KF-21 could operate means the military can conduct flight operations using catapults for aircraft launches and arrested landings.

This would be a more complex and expensive system than F-35B carrier operations, and it is expected the ministry will make a decision by the end of this year about whether to proceed with the program and which option it will pursue.

South Korea is technically still at war with its nuclear-armed neighbor, North Korea, having only signed an armistice agreement. The North has continued to develop its ballistic and cruise missile programs, and frequently test-fires these into the waters around the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking to lawmakers during a budget hearing, Singaporean Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said the decision came after a “full evaluation” of the F-35, which followed increased access to the aircraft program thanks to the country’s initial order.

That access included Republic of Singapore Air Force pilots getting the opportunity to fly F-35 mission simulators under the tutelage of operational F-35 instructor pilots, as well as conducting an evaluation of the electronic systems onboard the aircraft.

Singaporean personnel also visited overseas operators to study various aspects of F-35 sustainment, and they flew with Australia and the U.S. Marine Corps operators during a multinational air combat exercise in northern Australia.

The U.S. State Department in January 2020 approved Singapore’s request to buy four F-35Bs — the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter. The approval also included an option for eight more aircraft.

The small Southeast Asian island nation has likely selected the F-35B because it can take off fully loaded with a runway of about 600 feet, and land vertically. This allows the Republic of Singapore Air Force to reduce its reliance on long runways and to mitigate potentially devastating effects of an attack on its airfields.

Singapore currently has five established airports and air bases on its 280-square-mile main island, with a smaller emergency landing strip on one of its smaller offshore islands. One of the established bases is due to close in the early part of the next decade.

The Air Force will replace its current fleet of 60 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole fighters with the F-35B, with the service to retire the F-16 fleet starting in the early 2030s, according to Ng.

The F-16s are spread among three locally based squadrons and a training detachment based at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. The detachment is due to move to Ebbing Air National Guard Base at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and will become the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s F-35 training detachment when deliveries begin in 2026.

Accompanying documents released by the ministry during the budget debate also revealed Singapore will acquire ST Engineering’s improved Bronco 3 armored tracked carrier to replace the original Broncos in service with Singapore’s Army. However, the documents did not reveal an acquisition timeline, a quantity of vehicles or a contract value.

The country is setting aside $13.4 billion for its 2023 defense budget, a 5.6% increase over last year’s figure.

Fumio Kishida told Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada during a meeting that Japan needs to urgently increase its defense budget by fiscal 2027, Hamada said.

Kishida also said his administration needs to review government expenditures and revenue streams, as well as decide how it can secure extra funding to increase the defense budget, Hamada added.

Japan typically spends no more than 1% of its GDP on defense; the increase to 2% would bring it in line with the aspirations of NATO members, of which Japan is not a signatory.

The proposed increase would total about $287 billion over the next five years. In comparison, Japan’s defense budget for the fiscal year that ends in March 2023 is $39.66 billion.

Japan considers North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and China’s military activity in the region as threats to the homeland. To that end, the government plans to revise its national security strategy by the end of this year. That document provides Japan with long-term diplomacy and security policy guidelines.

The defense spending announcement follows several other military-related changes, such as allowing the export of military equipment and the acquisition of longer-ranged weapons.

Japanese media has reported the country is seeking up to 500 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the U.S. This comes after word the Asian nation is getting standoff, air-launched missiles for its F-35 fighter jets and is increasing the range of its indigenous land-based anti-ship missile.

US aircraft manufacturer Boeing also recently announced Japan awarded it a contract for two further KC-46A tankers, bringing its fleet to six. Two aircraft were already delivered, the first in October 2021 and another in February 2022.

SEOUL, South Korea, and MELBOURNE, Australia — North Korea displayed new submarine-launched ballistic missiles under development and other military hardware in a parade that underlined leader Kim Jong Un’s defiant calls to expand the country’s nuclear weapons program.

Kim presided over Thursday’s parade, which took place at night under powerful floodlights, the second time the country has done so. State media said he took center stage at the parade celebrating a major ruling party meeting in which he vowed maximum efforts to bolster the nuclear and missile program that threatens Asian rivals and the American homeland to counter what he described as U.S. hostility.

During an eight-day Workers’ Party congress that ended Tuesday, Kim also revealed plans to salvage the nation’s economy, hit by U.S.-led sanctions over his nuclear ambitions, pandemic-related border closures and natural disasters that wiped out crops.

The economic setbacks have left Kim with nothing to show for his ambitious diplomacy with President Donald Trump, which derailed over disagreements about sanctions relief in exchange for North Korean denuclearization steps, and pushed Kim to what is clearly the toughest moment of his nine-year rule.

Kim’s comments are likely intended to pressure the incoming U.S. government of Joe Biden, who has previously called the North Korean leader a “thug” and accused Trump of chasing spectacle rather than meaningful curbs on the North’s nuclear capabilities. Kim has not ruled out talks, but said the fate of bilateral relations depends on whether Washington abandons its hostile policy toward North Korea.

What was on display?

The parade featured the debut of a number weapons systems, primarily a number of what appears to be a new two-stage submarine-launched ballistic missile. Markings painted on the missile at the parade indicate that this new weapon is called the Pugguksong-5 and has a distinctly different warhead section from the Pugguksong-3 tested by North Korea in 2019 and the Pugguksong-4 displayed at the massive October 2020 parade.

Another notable debutant at the parade was a road-mobile, solid-fuel, short-range ballistic missile, or SRBM. The as-yet unnamed system mounted a pair of missiles on a wheeled five-axle transporter-erector-launcher, or TEL, and appeared to be a larger version of the KN-24 SRBM previously unveiled.

The new missile is also longer than the North Korean KN-23 SRBM, whose design is outwardly similar to the Russian Iskander missile. The KN-23 has been tested up to a range of 430 miles, and is also mounted in pairs, albeit on a shorter, four-axle version of the new missile’s TEL.

This North Korean parade was also notable for the missiles systems that did not make an appearance, which include the longer-ranged intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles that were present at earlier parades.

North Korean state TV on Friday aired edited footage of the parade, showing thousands of civilians and troops roaring and fireworks exploding overhead as Kim stepped out of a building and took his spot at a podium in Kim Il Sung Square, named after his grandfather and the country’s founder.

Kim, wearing a black fur hat and leather trench coat, waved and smiled widely as his troops chanted “Let’s defend Kim Jong Un with our lives!” and “Protect with our lives the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Committee led by Great Comrade Kim Jong Un!”

Reports and video from state media suggested that Kim did not make a speech during the parade.

His defense minister, Kim Jong Gwan, said in a speech that North Korea’s military would “preemptively marshal our greatest might to thoroughly punish hostiles forces” if they threaten the North’s safety.

Military aircraft flew in formation across the dark sky, using what appeared to be flares to form the symbol of the Workers’ Party — a hammer, brush and sickle.

What does the parade represent?

North Korea has been developing submarine-launched ballistic missile systems for years. Acquiring an operational system would alarm its rivals and neighbors because missiles fired from under water are harder to detect in advance.

Still, Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies and a former military official who participated in inter-Korean military talks, said the North’s presumably new submarine-launched missiles could possibly be engineering mockups that require further development before they are ready to be tested and deployed.

While Kim Jong Un vowed during the congress to develop nuclear-powered submarines capable of firing nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, it would take “considerable time” for North Korea to overcome financial and technological difficulties and produce such systems, the analyst said.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the way North Korea featured the submarine-launched missiles in the parade suggests that a test related to them could be North Korea’s first provocation for the Biden administration.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it is studying the weapons displayed by North Korea but didn’t immediately release a detailed assessment.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Tokyo is monitoring North Korean missile developments with “great concern.”

The move toward the development of tactical nuclear weapons by North Korea was not surprising, according to Ankit Panda, the Stanton senior fellow with the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, although he cautioned the country might resume nuclear testing.

Any such move would almost certainly attract international condemnation and could plunge the Korean Peninsula into a new crisis. North Korea previously offered a moratorium on ICBMs and nuclear testing in 2018. It has since said it is no longer bound by this unilateral decision but has yet to resume tests.

Nuclear-powered submarines were just one of many advanced military assets on Kim’s wish list during the congress, which also included longer-range ICBMs that could potentially target the U.S. mainland more reliably, new tactical nuclear weapons and warheads, spy satellites and hypersonic weapons.

It’s unclear whether North Korea is fully capable of developing such systems. While the country is believed to have accumulated at least dozens of nuclear weapons, outside estimates of the exact status of its nuclear and missile program vary widely.

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.