TOKYO: Japan on Tuesday approved plans to convert two ships into aircraft carriers -- the nation's first since World War II -- as it tries to counter growing Chinese military power in the region.The new five-year defence plan calls for the military to upgrade two existing "helicopter carriers" so that they will also be able to launch fighter jets, and is the latest in a series of steps under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to boost Japan's military.Abe's government argues the efforts are necessary given growing defence challenges in the region, including tensions with North Korea.Japan says the secretive expansion of China 's military footprint creates "strong concerns" in the region.But the move is controversial, with critics arguing it moves Tokyo further away from its commitment to strictly defensive capabilities, under Japan's post-World War II pacifist constitution. "We will secure both the quantity and quality of defence capability that is necessary... to meet the rapidly changing security environment," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular press briefing on Tuesday. "We have a very, very small SDF footprint" in the area between Okinawa and Taiwan , he added.But he said it was a "misunderstanding" to believe that the upgrades would create "full-fledged aircraft carriers" capable of staging offensive action in distant regions.And the new fighter jets would be stationed at existing ground facilities, not on the ships, he said. "We are not creating carrier air wings or carrier air squadrons" like the US navy, he added. "That's not going to happen."

Source: Economic Times December 18, 2018 05:48 UTC