On August 9, NATO announced that its Aegis Ashore site in Deveselu, Romania completed a set of updates initiated in April. In a statement, NATO said that the updates were part of routine maintenance and “did not provide any offensive capability” to the system. With the completion of maintenance, NATO has moved to withdraw the...
On July 9, Japan’s Ministry of Defense said it would share information from its planned Aegis Ashore sites with the United States. The Japanese government first announced plans to acquire the system in 2017 and aims to build two Aegis sites in Akita and Yamaguchi prefectures. Japan already operates several shipborne Aegis systems and co-develops...
In their fourth “two-plus-two” dialogue, Japanese and Russian foreign and defense ministers failed to reach consensus over disputed island territories north of Japan. Both countries highlighted missile activity as a key issue. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono stated that Russian missile exercises and aircraft deployments on the islands were “unacceptable,” while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei...
On July 3, 2018, officials in the Japanese Defense Ministry told Reuters that Japan plans to purchase a version of the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) as part of its larger Aegis Ashore defense system project. An unnamed Defense official said the LRDR was selected over the SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar because of...
On June 20, the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee released its proposals for the Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Subcommittee will meet at 10:30 AM on Thursday, June 22 to publicly discuss the mark. The proposals include several key reforms and updates on U.S. missile defense policy, including: requiring the...
Multiple ruling party and government officials, including Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, have voiced support for the acquisition of the Aegis Ashore missile defense system. Anonymous officials cited the greater coverage area and lower cost of the system when asked why Aegis Ashore was preferred over a THAAD battery like the one currently being deployed to South Korea....
According to reports, Romania has announced its intent to procure the Patriot air and missile defense system. Romania, a NATO member, would purchase the Patriot missile defense batteries to work with its integrated air and missile defense system, which also includes six recently purchased F-16 fighter jets and the Aegis Ashore missile defense radar deployed...
Gaps in coverage leave interceptors less-equipped to defeat the threats of tomorrow. No missile defense is better than the sensors that tell the interceptors where to go and what to kill. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, draws upon considerably more sensors for homeland defense than when operations began in 2004, but shortfalls remain....
On February 1, NATO announced that it would indefinitely suspend a meeting with Ukrainian officials regarding NATO’s missile defense system. As Ukraine is not a member of the alliance, NATO’s Aegis Ashore site would not be used to defend the country. However, this meeting would have addressed concerns about debris falling on Ukrainian territory if Iran...
With the conclusion of a joint plan of action for Iran’s nuclear program, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia has returned to his favorite talking point: that NATO should scale back missile defenses. NATO should do nothing of the sort. Not only does the Iran deal not roll back the most numerous and diverse missile...
