Japan’s drive to produce its own fifth-generation fighter took a step forward on April 22, with the first flight of the Mitsubishi X-2. It took off from the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) aerospace facility at Komaki airport near Nagoya and performed basic maneuvers before landing 26 minutes later at nearby Gifu airbase. The MHI test pilot described the flight as “extrememly stable.”

Commenting on the first flight, Japanese defense minister Gen. Nakatani said the X-2 development had “a very high potential for technological innovation in the entire aircraft industry and for application to other fields.” The goals of the project included the development of skilled engineers and to “clearly demonstrate the level of Japan’s aviation technology to the outside world.” He suggested that forthcoming test flights would enable the government to decide whether to proceed further by Fiscal Year 2018.

The X-2 was previously designated Advanced Technology Demonstrator-X (ATD-X). The project has consistently failed to achieve timetable milestones. When the X-2 was unveiled to the Japanese media in late January, a first flight was predicted within a month. However, when Japan’s Technical Research and Development Institute (TRDI) launched the project in 2007, it said it might take as long as 15 years to develop an indigenous agile and stealthy fighter with integrated avionics and thrust-vectoring, supercruise engines.

Last October, the TRDI was merged into the Japansese Ministry of Defense’s new Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA). This is supposed to overhaul and streamline defense development, acquisition and production in Japan, and also be responsible for the country’s new policy, set in 2014, of permitting defense exports. Shortly before the ATLA was set up, a government report suggested the possibility of international co-development of the X-2.