Japan Schedules Sea-Based Missile Defense Drill

The Japanese Defense Ministry has scheduled a mid-December test of the Aegis ballistic missile defense system aboard the JDS Kongo, the Asahi Shimbun reported today (see GSN, Aug. 8).

The Japanese destroyer is expected to use its advanced Standard Missile-3 system to intercept mock intermediate-range ballistic missiles launched near Hawaii by the U.S. Navy.

Following the test near Hawaii, the Kongo is expected to return to its home port of Sasebo in Nagasaki to be deployed.

By the date of the drill, an upgrade to the ship’s Aegis air-defense system is planned to make it compatible with the SM-3 technology.

The Kongo would be the first Japanese Aegis destroyer able to destroy ballistic missiles during their midcourse phase of flight, when they are more than 60 miles above the earth’s surface. 

The Defense Ministry said its completed sea-based ballistic missile defense system would use two or three SM-3-compatible Aegis destroyers to shield the entire Japanese archipelago.  By the end of fiscal 2011, Japan plans to upgrade three more Kongo-class Aegis destroyers to be SM-3-compatible (Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 16).

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