GSDF to Establish New Department on Use of Unmanned Assets by End of April; Seeks to Advance Drone Use, Operational Automation

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:42 JST, April 6, 2026

The Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Force have decided to establish a new department within the Ground Self-Defense Force that will advance the use of unmanned assets, such as drones, by the end of April, according to sources close to the government.

The decision reflects their desire to push for more equipment to be made unmanned or automated to prepare new way of fighting informed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.

The new GSDF department is slated to have more than 10 and fewer than 20 staff members. It will consist of two units, one focusing on drones and unmanned operations and the other for using artificial intelligence and other tools to move forward with automating operations. The department will be responsible for researching strategy formulation and necessary equipment systems.

Currently, the majority of the SDF’s unmanned assets are airplanes. The GSDF hopes that in the future it will be possible to conduct operations in which unmanned vehicles will engage in battle together with manned tanks and armored cars.

Making more equipment unmanned or labor-saving is also intended to help the SDF cope with a serious shortage of new recruits. The sufficiency rate of the SDF — the real number of SDF personnel divided by its capacity (247,154) — was 89.1% at the end of fiscal 2024.

“By trying to achieve the best possible combination of manned and unmanned equipment, we also seek to protect our precious [SDF] members,” a senior ministry official stressed.

The ministry and the SDF are making concerted efforts to expand the use of drones. For example, they have started discussions on adopting long-range attack drones.