Japan and India have announced their first-ever defence co-development project, the Naval Radio Antenna known as UNICORN, which stands for Unified Complex Radio Antenna and NORA-50 integration mast, reported Times of India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the initiative as a new chapter in bilateral defence technology cooperation, emphasising that the two countries would jointly develop systems that strengthen regional peace, maritime security, and the rules-based order. He made these remarks alongside Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during her official visit to New Delhi.

Unlike conventional warship masts that are cluttered with dozens of exposed antennas, UNICORN consolidates them into a single radar dome, or Radome, which sharply reduces the vessel’s radar cross-section.

The mast houses antennas for tactical data link, TACAN or Tactical Air Navigation System, communications, Identification Friend or Foe, and Electronic Support Measures for radar and communication interception. By stacking these elements and enclosing them in a low-RCS Radome, the mast eliminates one of the brightest radar returns on a warship, making it significantly harder for adversaries to detect and classify.

The system was jointly developed by three Japanese companies: NEC Corporation as lead contractor, Sampa Kogyo K.K., and The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. It is already fitted on the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force’s Mogami-class stealth frigates, of which twelve units have been built, with another twelve upgraded vessels on order. India’s co-production will be executed by Bharat Electronics Limited, with Japan providing advanced design expertise while India handles integration and manufacturing. 

This arrangement aligns with the Make in India initiative and follows a Memorandum of Implementation signed in November 2024 at the Embassy of India in Tokyo. The political approval for the project was secured earlier at the second India–Japan 2+2 Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo in September 2022.

India thus becomes the second Asian nation to receive Japanese defence technology, after the Philippines acquired air-surveillance radars under a contract signed in November 2023. That deal marked Japan’s first defence equipment export since the Second World War, enabled by Tokyo’s April 2014 overhaul of the Three Principles on Transfer of Defence Equipment and Technology, which replaced the near-total ban on arms exports in place since 1967.

The stealth advantage of UNICORN is particularly relevant in the contested waters of the East and South China Seas, where China’s PLA Navy and coast guard ISR networks rely heavily on radar fingerprinting of individual warships.

The Mogami-class already achieves a radar cross-section estimated at two orders of magnitude smaller than a conventionally designed frigate of similar size. By removing the antenna farm, UNICORN denies China the per-ship signal patterns it has spent years cataloguing, thereby enhancing survivability and operational secrecy.

During her three-day visit, Prime Minister Takaichi highlighted that India and Japan are among the world’s largest economies and share a commitment to a free, prosperous, and rules-based Indo-Pacific. 

She stressed that as the region’s largest democratic and market economies, both nations have undertaken significant initiatives that will pave the way for peace, stability, and progress across the region. Her remarks echoed the standard Indo-Pacific vocabulary used by Tokyo and Washington to describe strategic pushback against Beijing, with UNICORN representing the first tangible piece of hardware under this framework.

The UNICORN project therefore symbolises more than a technological upgrade. It is a strategic milestone in Indo-Japanese defence cooperation, combining Japan’s advanced design expertise with India’s manufacturing capacity, while reinforcing shared geopolitical objectives in the Indo-Pacific.

Agencies