On September 19, Kyodo News reported that Japan has allocated $57 million for research and development of a hypersonic missile. The Defense Ministry plans to build a scramjet engine prototype capable of Mach 5 speeds and to explore new technologies for fuel combustion during high-speed flight. Preliminary plans for the missile’s testing period are set...
On September 11, the United States and Japan successfully intercepted a separating ballistic missile target with a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) IB Threat Update (TU) interceptor off the coast of Hawaii. The Japanese Aegis destroyer JS Atago (DDG-177) fired the SM-3 and intercepted the target in the test. According to the Missile Defense Agency press release,...
Reports indicate that Japan’s Navy will outfit at least two of its Maya-class destroyers with SM-6 missiles, furthering Japan’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) initiative. Launched on July 30, JS Maya (DDG-179) is outfitted with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system, and is scheduled to conduct an SM-6 interception test in the United States around...
On July 30, Japan launched JS Maya (DDG-179), an upgraded Atago-class Aegis destroyer which will serve the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. The ship will be equipped with Cooperative Engagement Capability, “a U.S.-made real-time sensor network system that will allow the Japanese warships to closely share radar and fire-controlling data with the U.S. Navy,” as described by The...
On July 30, Japan announced that it will deploy one Aegis Ashore missile defense system over the course of six years, as opposed to the previously planned five. The Japan Times reported, “The government is considering two Ground Self-Defense Force training areas — in Akita and Yamaguchi prefectures — as candidate sites to install the system. It...
According to a source in the Japanese Defense Ministry, Japan has refined the cost estimates for its two proposed Aegis Ashore batteries, indicating the actual cost may be twice the original estimate. The system, which the government aims to have operational by 2030, may come at a price of 400 billion yen alone, with the...
On July 12, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) successfully tested an ATM-84J Harpoon antiship cruise missile in a sinking exercise during the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC). Fired from a P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft, the missile struck the former USS Racine (LST-1191), a Newport-class Landing Ship, Tank. The United States and Japan also...
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 21, Japan will cancel missile evacuation drills in nine prefectures, citing the reduced threat from North Korea following the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore on June 12. According to Time, “Japan’s government started missile-specific evacuation drills last March,” and stated that it would not hold the drills provided the current threat from North Korea...
In a nuclear world, nuclear weapons are needed to deter major attacks, but who should possess these instruments of deterrence? Today the challenge of keeping nonnuclear states from going nuclear may be growing, perhaps nowhere quite as much as in northeast Asia...
