News Story: Japan denies reports it test-fired XASM-3 missile

XASM-3 missile mock-up (Image: Wiki Commons)

By: Mike Yeo

MELBOURNE, Australia — Japan has denied reports speculating that it had test-fired a new supersonic air-launched anti-ship missile last week, although a test-firing is still on the cards for later this year. 

Responding to questions from Defense News, a spokeswoman from the Japanese Ministry of Defense's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, or ATLA, also confirmed that it is planning to test-fire a XASM-3 missile from a Mitsubishi F-2 fighter jet at a missile range in the Gulf of Wakasa, off western Japan.

The ATLA spokeswoman was unable to provide a more specific date other than that it will be sometime in fiscal 2017 fiscal, which in Japan runs from April 1 of this year to March 31, 2018, saying that it would depend on the progress of the missile’s development program as well as weather and sea conditions. 

However, ATLA tender documents indicate that it is seeking flight test control and telemetry relay equipment specifically for the monitoring and recording of flight test data for the XASM-3 against an “offshore target” to be delivered in late April 2017, which suggests that any live firing will occur only in late May or early June at the earliest. 

Read the full story at DefenseNews