News Story: Japan evaluating sites for Aegis Ashore missile defense system

CGI of an Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System

By: Mike Yeo

MELBOURNE, Australia ― Japan is evaluating locations to base the Aegis Ashore land-based ballistic missile defense system of which it has expressed interest in acquiring to better defend against North Korean ballistic missiles.

According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which quoted Japanese Defense Ministry sources, Japan is looking at placing the Aegis Ashore on two sites along the country’s western coast to give complete coverage against North Korean ballistic missiles.

The newspaper reported that the sites under consideration for the northern system are either the Kamo sub-base in Oga, Akita prefecture, and the Sado sub-base in Sado, Niigata prefecture; for the system covering the southern part of Japan, either the Unishima sub-base in Tsushima or the Fukuejima sub-base in Goto, both in Nagasaki prefecture.

These sites are all part of Japan’s current early-warning and ballistic missile-defense radar network operated by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, operating a mixture of J/FPS-3, J/FPS-5 and other older radars.

The Asahi Shimbun reported that Japan plans to have its Aegis Ashore systems operational by 2023, although this could be pushed forward if the regional security changes. The newspaper quoted Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera as saying that “we want to introduce the system at the earliest possible schedule”.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Report: US Strategic Command - We Assume North Korea Has Nuclear ICBM

North Korea's Hwasong-14 Ballistic Missile

North Korea’s nuclear program is on the verge of developing accurate nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can strike the US mainland, according to the commander of US Strategic Command.

Air Force General John Hyten spoke at a Wednesday forum held by the Hudson Institute, a right-wing think tank whose stated goal is to promote "global security, prosperity and freedom." Hyten, whose background is in military engineering and space warfare, said that the United States must "look at [the ICBM] capability of North Korea as a matter of when, not if."

Pyongyang has struggled with the problem of a guidance system that survives orbital re-entry, one of the most challenging aspects of ICBMs. Nuclear warheads are very dense and heavy, and the heat of re-entry can warp the missile and render it totally inaccurate.

But Hyten cautioned that Pyongyang won't be delayed for long. "If you're going down that path, you'll eventually figure it out. You will. So we have to assume, and as commander of Strategic Command I have to assume, that they have the bomb and they will have the capability to deploy it on an ICBM," Hyten said. "And I have to figure out how to respond if asked by the president of the United States."

News Story: Japan deploys PAC-3 missile interceptor near North Korea flight path

A Japanese Patriot PAC-3 Missile System

By: Mari Yamaguchi

TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Tuesday moved a mobile missile-defense system on the northern island of Hokkaido to a base near recent North Korean missile flyover routes.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor unit was deployed at the Hakodate base on southern Hokkaido “as a precaution” as part of government preparations for a possible emergency.

The relocation came after a North Korean missile was test-fired last week and flew over southern Hokkaido and landed in the Pacific off the island’s east coast — the second flyover in less than a month.

The PAC-3 was brought from another base in Yakumo town on Hokkaido, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Hakodate. The system has a range of about 20 kilometers.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: To shoot down or not? NKorea launch highlights intercept issues

CGI of an Aegis Ashore system (Click Image to Enlarge)

By Thomas Watkins with Shingo Ito in Tokyo

North Korea's latest missile launch over Japan set sirens blaring and triggered alerts telling people to seek shelter -- yet neither Tokyo nor Washington tried to shoot the rocket down.

The test follows one in August that saw another rocket soar over Hokkaido. In that case too, much-vaunted Japanese and US missile-intercept capabilities were not used.

Now some in the United States are wondering why all this sophisticated weaponry isn't being used, especially as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un accelerates toward his goal of building a nuclear missile capable of striking the United States.

"The next time the North Koreans launch a rocket, especially one that will traverse over our ally Japan, I would hope that we shoot it down as a message to the North Koreans and to other people, like in Japan, who are counting on us," Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher told lawmakers this week.

"Unless we demonstrate we're willing to use force, there's no reason for them to believe we will."

The US Pacific Command confirmed Friday's rocket was an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), and Seoul's defense ministry said it probably traveled around 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles), hurtling to a maximum altitude of 770 kilometers.

The missile, which fell in the Pacific Ocean, represented North Korea's furthest-ever flight.

Evans Revere and Jonathan Pollack of the Brookings Institution wrote in a paper that Washington should declare that any future North Korean missiles toward or over US or allied territory would be deemed a direct threat that would "be addressed with the full range of US and allied defensive capabilities."

Read the full story at SpaceDaily

News Story: Japan refuels US missile defense ships under new security laws

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Maritime Self-Defense Force has refueled U.S. ships patrolling to counter North Korean missile launches under new security laws that took effect last year, a Japanese government source said Thursday.

The refueling missions to U.S. Aegis ships sailing in the Sea of Japan were conducted multiple times since April, making them the second instance in which Japanese Self-Defense Forces were known to have performed their expanded roles under the security legislation.

The legislation has loosened the constraints of Japan's war-renouncing postwar Constitution imposed on the activities of the defense forces, setting the stage for U.S. and Japanese troops to work more closely than ever.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the SDF personnel are engaging in activities to provide supplies to the U.S. military based on the legislation, but refrained from acknowledging specific operations.

"I cannot comment on the issue because it will unveil the details of the operations of the SDF and the U.S. military," the chief Cabinet secretary said at a regular press conference.

In May, the MSDF engaged in a mission to protect a U.S. Navy vessel off Japan for the first time under the legislation, although Tokyo has also not officially confirmed that operation to avoid impacting U.S. military activities and bilateral relations.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Story: U.S. to send more strategic assets to Korea - Pacific Fleet chief

Adm. Scott Swift (Image: Wiki Commons)

By Lee Chi-dong

SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Yonhap) -- A top U.S. naval commander said Tuesday his country will keep sending formidable defense assets to the Korean Peninsula in combined deterrence and response to North Korea's "self-destructive" actions.

Adm. Scott Swift, who commands the U.S. Pacific Fleet, stressed that although South Koreans stand closest to the North's threats, they "do not face this aggressor alone."

He cited the North's continued provocations, including "ill-advised" ballistic missile launches and inflammatory warnings of nuclear war, highlighted by its sixth nuclear test Sunday.

Speaking at the International Seapower Symposium here, the admiral described the Kim Jong-un regime's choice as "irrationally self-destructive actions and behaviors that defy logic and explanation."

"We will continue to deploy carrier strike groups, expeditionary strike groups, AEGIS ships, the world's most capable submarine force and advanced aircraft like the F-35, P-8 and MH-60R to be prepared to respond decisively when called," he stressed. "Today, our platforms have longer reach, are more interconnected and possess greater lethality than what has ever been fielded before."

Read the full story at YonhapNews

News Story: Japan Defense Ministry seeks missile interceptors in budget

By: Mari Yamaguchi

TOKYO — Japan’s Defense Ministry is seeking a record-high budget to add missile interceptors and other equipment to defend the country from more North Korean weapons launches.

The 5.26 trillion yen (U.S. $47.78 billion) request for the fiscal year beginning next April is a 2.5 percent increase from the current year. A big chunk of the request announced Thursday will cover purchases of upgraded missile interceptors with expanded range, altitude and accuracy.

They include the ship-to-air SM-3 Block IIA jointly developed by the U.S. and Japan and the surface-to-air PAC-3 MSE.

The request comes amid growing fear about North Korea’s missile threat and rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. On Tuesday, Pyongyang fired a missile that flew over Japan and landed in the northern Pacific Ocean. It flight tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July and has threatened to send missiles near the U.S. territory of Guam, where the U.S. has military bases.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called Tuesday’s missile firing an “unprecedented, grave and serious threat.” On Wednesday, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, an advocate of bolstering Japan’s missile and strike-back capability, said Tokyo must quickly upgrade its missile arsenal.

China, which is seen by Tokyo as another security concern, questioned Japan’s intentions.

“We think Japan is obliged to explain its real intention to the international community,” Hua Chunying, China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman, told a regular news conference.

Japan has criticized Beijing over its military spending and assertive maritime activity in regional waters.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: Japan's defense ministry seeks record budget for FY 2018

CGI of an Aegis Ashore System

TOKYO, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday a record-high budget request for the fiscal year 2018, which, if approved, would mark the sixth annual increase since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe retook office in 2012.

The defense ministry's budget request, up by 2.5 percent from this year's initial budget, totals 5.26 trillion yen (47.8 billion U.S. dollars) for the fiscal year starting from April, 2018.

The budget request was compiled by setting the dollar's exchange rate at 110 yen for fiscal 2018, according to the ministry.

Part of the money would be used to introduce a new missile shield system, possibly the land-based Aegis Ashore, but the amount was unspecified as it still needs to be hammered out with the United States, said the ministry.

Japan has so far taken steps to counter any potential launches of ballistic missiles by deploying high-tech Aegis advanced radar-equipped destroyers which are tasked with stopping missiles in the outer atmosphere, and ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors which will counter the attack at lower altitudes.

The Aegis Ashore system is a land-based version of the Aegis advanced radar system, and with potential to be permanently installed, it is expected to reduce the workload of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces members in missile intercept operations.

Each Aegis Ashore unit costs around 80 billion yen, and Japan would need two units to cover the whole landmass, experts here have said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Japan Left Vulnerable After US Reneges on Radar Delivery

CGI of an Aegis Ashore System

The US has so far declined to furnish Japan with a new longer-range radar, causing concern that this will leave Tokyo’s planned missile defense system ill-equipped to deal with aggression from North Korea.

By 2023, Japan wants to have an operational land-based version of the Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) system as an answer to advances Pyongyang has made in its ballistic missile program.

According to Reuters, the range of the powerful Spy-6 radar is needed to accommodate a new generation of BMD interceptor missiles. Without it, Japan will be forced to field the Aegis system with its current radar technology, which has a shorter range.

This means that even though the interceptor has the range to strike a high-flung missile, the radar won’t be able to detect the projectile until it becomes closer to land. The Spy-6 technology boosts the radar dozens of times over, but Tokyo has not been successful in its effort to procure the radar from Washington.

News Report: US Test-Intercepts Medium-Range Ballistic Missile Off Hawaii Coast

USS John Paul Jones (Image: Wiki Commons)

A day after the latest North Korean missile launch, the US military test-intercepted a ballistic missile off the Hawaii coast.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The US Missile Defense Agency said it had conducted jointly with the US Navy soldiers missile defense flight test, intercepting a medium-range ballistic missile target off the coast of Hawaii.

"The Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) successfully conducted a complex missile defense flight test, resulting in the intercept of a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) target using Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) guided missiles during a test off the coast of Hawaii today," the statement read.

The vessel detected and tracked the target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar, the statement read.

News Story: S. Korean military warns of retaliation against N. Korea

SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's armed forces on Tuesday denounced North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, warning that it will face "resolute" retaliation if it remains bellicose.

The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) noted that it was the North's 13th ballistic missile fired this year. Furthermore, the latest one flew over Japan.

It's a "blatant violation" of the U.N. Security Council resolution against Pyongyang and a grave provocation that threatens the peace and stability of the world, Army Col. Roh Jae-cheon, the JCS spokesman, said in a statement.

The South and the United States will retaliate resolutely against any additional provocations, he added.

Read the full story at Yonhap

News Report: Tokyo Concerned Over Chinese Bombers Patrolling Japanese Border

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Friday his country had voiced concern to Beijing after chasing away six Chinese bombers from its southern frontiers.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — Despite there was no violation of the international law, Japanese authorities were "analyzing motives" of the Chinese side sending jets to the region, the Kyodo news agency reported quoting the minister.

China's H-6 medium-range bombers flew between the islands of Okinawa and Miyakojima and approached the Kii peninsula in the south of of Honshu. This was the first time they followed that route, according to Onodera.

Japanese fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the planes although they did not intrude into the Japanese airspace. Tokyo's response was handed over diplomatic channels and there was no official note of protest.

News Story: Japan to hold drills deploying missile interceptors at U.S. bases

Japanese Patriot (PAC-3) Missile Launcher

TOKYO, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) will hold drills deploying missile interceptors at three U.S. military bases here to prepare for any contingencies stemming from heightened tensions in the Korean Peninsula, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Friday.

"The drills will contribute to further strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance," Onodera told a press briefing on the matter.

The Defense Ministry said the exercises will take place at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo and at the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan's southwest, next Tuesday.

On Sept. 7, similar drills will be held at the Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, the ministry also said.

Such drills would mark the first time that exercises deploying missile interceptors have been held at U.S. bases in Japan, the Def Ministry said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Record 5.2 tril. yen defense budget sought amid N. Korea concerns

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese Defense Ministry plans to seek a record-high budget of 5.26 trillion yen ($48.1 billion) for fiscal 2018 as the country seeks to beef up its missile defense capabilities in the face of growing missile threats by North Korea, a government source said Tuesday.

The ministry plans to set aside 47.2 billion yen to acquire a new type of interceptor missile to be loaded on Japanese destroyers equipped with the Aegis missile defense system, while also asking for funding to introduce a land-based Aegis system known as Aegis Ashore.

The fiscal 2018 budget request would mark a 2.5 percent rise from the initial budget for the current year through March. Japan's defense budget has been on the rise from fiscal 2013 under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government and topped 5 trillion yen in the fiscal 2017 budget for a second-straight year.

The Defense Ministry will leave open the actual sum it is expecting for designing the Aegis Ashore program because of the need for consultations with the United States that owns the technology. But it plans to finalize the costs by the end of the year when the government will draw up the fiscal 2018 budget plan.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Report: Top US General Commits to Work With Tokyo to Strengthen Missile Defense

General Joe Dunford (Image: Wiki Commons)

Carla Babb

TOKYO — The top U.S. general and his Japanese counterpart have agreed to work together to strengthen missile defenses for Japan, as Tokyo announced that they will introduce the land-based Aegis Ashore system for additional protection against the North Korean missile threat.

General Joe Dunford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a small group of reporters in Tokyo that his meetings with Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reaffirmed the "extraordinarily healthy military-to-military relationship" between Japan and the United States.

"I think this is probably about as important a place that I could be … in the wake of recent activity by Kim Jong Un, making sure our allies have no confusion at all about where we are in our overall policy [and] where we are with regards to the military dimension of that policy," Dunford said Friday.

Dunford was visiting Japan after talks with Chinese and South Korean leaders in Beijing and Seoul earlier in the week. He said he offered Abe some of the perspectives picked up during his time in China, while also focusing on the challenge of North Korea and the trilateral efforts that the U.S., Japanese and South Korean militaries needed to deal with the threat.

"I think it's important that allies and friends have complete transparency, so I wanted him to know the nature of my conversations in China," Dunford explained.

News Story: Japan seeks new missile defense ‘assets,’ increased cyber cooperation

CGI of an Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System

By: Aaron Mehta

WASHINGTON — Japan is seeking new missile defense assets in light of the North Korean threat, while also looking at ways to expand a 2015 defense agreement with the United States.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, speaking Thursday at the State Department following a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, said that the threat from Pyongyang is driving Japan to look to accelerate certain defense decisions.

Among those changes is an increased focus on missile defense capabilities. In his opening comments, Onodera, speaking through a translator, said “we will continue to promote cooperation in ballistic missile defense, including acquisition of new assets,” a signal that the Japanese government would consider adding to its defensive capabilities.

While nothing official was announced during the 2+2, the Japan Times newspaperreported shortly before the event that officials expect to procure an Aegis Ashore missile defense system. The same report, citing government sources, said the Ministry of Defense is pushing to speed up planned procurement of another Aegis destroyed.

Japan currently has missile defense systems aboard its Aegis class ships, along with Patriot systems on the ground. If Japan sought the Aegis Ashore system, it would join Romania and, by 2018, Poland as partner nations using that design.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: Japan deploys missile interceptors after N. Korea threatens Guam

Japanese Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3)

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan finished deploying interceptors on Saturday along the possible path of North Korean ballistic missiles Pyongyang has threatened to launch toward the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

The deployment of the surface-to-air missile defense system in western Japan came after North Korea said it is "seriously examining" a plan to simultaneously fire four intermediate-range ballistic missiles over western Japan in an "enveloping strike at Guam."

The Air Self-Defense Force's Patriot Advanced Capability-3 system was deployed in the western prefectures of Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi, which North Korea said its missiles could cross over, as well as Ehime which is located between Hiroshima and Kochi.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Report: Japan Mulls Adding Extra PAC-3 Interceptors to Stop Guam-Bound Missiles

A Japanese Patriot (PAC-3) Missile Defense system

Japan is considering bringing in more Patriot PAC-3 air defense missile systems to shield its territory from North Korean missiles heading for the US island of Guam, local media said Friday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — North Korea said this week it was examining a plan of a ballistic missile strike near Guam, which hosts several US military bases. The projectiles will travel over the Japanese prefectures of Shimane, Hirosima and Kochi.

Japan’s territory is protected by 34 short-range PAC-3 systems. They are stationed in densely populated areas and do not cover the three said prefectures. Additional interceptor systems would plug those gaps, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.

Authorities are also considering deploying more destroyers equipped with Aegis missile defense systems. Aegis combat systems can destroy short- to medium-range ballistic missiles.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

News Report: North Korea Finalizing Test Missile Launches Aimed Toward Guam

Click Image to Enlarge

Ken Bredemeier

North Korea said Thursday it is finalizing a plan to launch a salvo of four ballistic missiles off the shores of the U.S. territory of Guam, the newest provocation in the war of words between Pyongyang and Washington.

The reclusive communist state, in an unusually detailed announcement, said that within a week North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be handed a plan to fire the Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan into the waters off Guam 3,300 kilometers to the south.

State media said the missiles would land 30 to 40 kilometers off the shores of Guam, where 163,000 people live and the U.S. has 7,000 military personnel at a naval installation and an air base.

General Kim Rak Gyom, the commander of the North's strategic rocket forces, told the state-run KCNA news agency that after the plan was given to Kim, the military would "wait for his order."

USA: USS Barry to visit Guadalcanal for Battle of Guadalcanal 75th anniversary

By MC2 William Collins III, USS Barry Public Affairs

USS Barry (DDG 52) file photo (U.S. Navy/MC1 Elijah G. Leinaar) >>

HONIARA, Guadalcanal - The destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52), forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, will arrive at the port of Honiara, Guadalcanal of the Solomon Islands on August 4 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Barry, commanded by Cmdr. Dave Huljack, is an Arleigh Burke class AEGIS guided-missile destroyer; 505 feet in length; displacing nearly 9,000 tons; hosting an approximate crew size of 280.

While in Honiara, the crew is looking forward to participating in various ceremonies, memorial services, a parade, community volunteer events, sporting events, and indulging in the local culture with traditional food and dance.

USS Barry is on patrol in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

US Pacific Fleet