Japan is looking to boost its defense capabilities with a purchase of new cruise missiles to counter “increasingly severe” national security threats to the island nation.
For the first time, Japan will buy long-range, stand-off cruise missiles to better protect itself in the face of rising regional security threats, CNN introduced.
“We are planning to introduce the JSM (Joint Strike Missile) that will be mounted on the F-35A as ‘stand-off’ missiles that can be fired beyond the range of enemy threats,” Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera revealed Friday. He also revealed that Japan intends to put Lockheed Martin Corp’s extended-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER) on its F-15 fighter jets, Reuters reported Friday.
The JSM has a range of about 300 miles, while the JASSM-ER can strike targets over 600 miles away.
“We will implement stand-off missiles capable of defending ourselves adequately, when we are outside the range of the opponent, in order to ensure the safety of the Self Defense Force and to defend our nation effectively,” the defense minister further explained.
Onodera did not mention North Korea specifically, but the decision to purchase new stand-off missiles comes as North Korea emerges as the gravest short-term security threat to Northeast Asia.
The rogue North Korean regime twice fired intermediate-range ballistic missiles over Japan this year, and in March, the North launched a salvo of extended-range Scud missiles into the East Sea/Sea of Japan, asserting that the Korean People’s Army’s Strategic Rocket Forces were training to strike military bases in Japan.
The new cruise missiles will offer Japan the ability to strike North Korea, but Onodera suggested the weapons could also be used for island defense, giving the country the ability to “deal with enemy surface forces or landing forces before they get close.” His comment hints at an interest in deterring Chinese military expansionism in the East China Sea.
The Japanese government has been steadily pushing to relax the restrictions on Japanese military development. The new cruise missiles will extend the Japanese military’s reach, as the country’s current missiles have a range of just over 180 miles, according to the BBC.
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