SINGAPORE, June 6 (UPI) -- Japan and the United States will move from research to the development stage on an upgraded sea-based missile defense system, the Yomiuri Shimbun said Monday. Japan's Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono told reporters Sunday in Singapore that the agency would request a multimillion-dollar budget in 2006 for the first year's development. Production will begin following a five-year development phase that ends in 2011, he said.
The two countries are jointly developing a sea-based interceptor missile with a 20-inch diameter that will be able to distinguish a targeted missile from a decoy. At the end of 2006 Japan will equip its Aegis destroyers with 13-inch-diameter interceptor missiles that can cover several hundred miles, but the new missiles will have a much longer range. "If the missile defense system can double the scope of Japan's defense, the number of Aegis vessels could be halved," Ono said. |