The defense industry expects the government's project to domestically develop a new generation of antisubmarine patrol and transport aircraft would generate more than 1 trillion yen in demand.
There is concern, however, that the United States may ask for joint production as it did for a fighter jet in the 1980s.
The government's Security Council, headed by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, moved last month to earmark 5.3 billion yen out of a 4.96 trillion yen fiscal 2001 defense budget to cover the first year of the project.
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