Japan to expand ballistic missile defence with ground-based Aegis batteries
TOKYO: Japan formally decided yesterday it would expand its ballistic missile defence system with US- made ground-based Aegis radar stations and interceptors in response to a growing threat from North Korean rockets.
A proposal to build two Aegis Ashore batteries was approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet.
The sites without the missiles will likely cost at least US$ 2 billion and are not likely to be operational until 2023 at the earliest, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters earlier.
“North Korea’s nuclear missile development poses a new level of threat to Japan and as we have done in the past we will ensure that we are able to defend ourselves with a drastic improvement in ballistic missile defence,” Japanese Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
The decision to acquire the ground version of the Aegis missile- defence system, which is already deployed on Japanese warships, was widely expected.
North Korea on Nov 29 tested a new, more powerful ballistic missile that it says can hit major US cities including Washington, and fly over Japan’s current defence shield.
That rocket reached an altitude of more than 4,000km, well above the range of interceptor missiles on Japanese ships operating in the Sea of Japan.
North Korea says its weapons programmes are necessary to counter US aggression.
The new Aegis stations may not, however, come with a powerful radar, dubbed Spy- 6, which is being developed by the United States.
Without it, Japan will not be able to fully utilise the extended range of a new interceptor missile, the SM- 3 Block IIA, which cost about US$ 30 million each.
A later upgrade, once the US military has deployed Spy- 6 on its ships around 2022, could prove a costly proposition for Japan as outlays on new equipment squeeze its military budget.
Initial funding will be ringfenced in the next defence budget beginning in April, but no decision has been made on the radar, or the overall cost, or schedule, of the deployment, a Ministry of Defence official said at a press briefing.
Japan’s military planners also evaluated the US- built THAAD ( Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system before deciding on Aegis Ashore.
Separately, Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera said this month Japan would acquire medium- range cruise missiles it can launch from its F-15 and F- 35 fighters at sites in North Korea, in a bid to deter any attack.
The purchase of what will become the longestrange munitions in Japan’s military arsenal is controversial because it renounced the right to wage war against other nations in its post-World War Two constitution. — Reuters