Japan and South Korea completed a Foreign Military Sales Agreement to purchase the Aegis Baseline 9 Combat System in a deal announced August 12. The agreement will equip two Japanese Atago-class destroyers and three South Korean Sejong-class destroyers with the capability to simultaneously conduct air defense and ballistic missile defense missions. The South Korean vessels will be the first deployed by Seoul that can participate in ballistic missile defense. The agreement comes in response to the unprecedented pace of ballistic missile tests by North Korea at ranges that threaten both nations.