TOKYO (Reuters) – Global arms firms showed off on Wednesday their wares in Japan as it prepared a plan to buy billions of dollars of U.S. military equipment, including at least 40 Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters worth about $4 billion, four sources said.

The Lockheed Martin Corp F-35s, which will replace 100 aging F-15 fighter jets, are in addition to an earlier order for 42 of the aircraft.

The new procurement will leave Japan with about 100 stealth fighters, including some vertical take off B variants that could fly from helicopter carriers, in a bid to give it an edge over China in the contested East China Sea.

“It will be around 40 new aircraft,” said one of the sources with knowledge of Japan’s five-year plan.

He described a Tuesday report in the Nikkei business daily that Japan would buy as many as 100 new F-35s as “aspirational”.

The procurement plan, which will be released in December with a paper outlining defense goals, is widely expected to accelerate defense spending increases that are already pushing Japan beyond a self-imposed limit of 1 percent of gross domestic product.

Reuters