Japan signs $2.8 billion deal for long-range missile development

Asia-Pacific, News April 13, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

Japan’s Ministry of Defense announced on April 12, 2023, that it signed a $2.8 billion contract with the country’s largest defense contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, for the development and mass production of Type 12 long-range missiles.

The ministry said that under the contract, an enhanced version of Japan’s domestically produced Type 12 missile would be developed for surface, air, and sea launch. The contract would also provide Japan’s first Hypersonic ballistic missile. Japanese military would be able to deploy these missiles as early as 2026.

The Hypersonic variant of the Type 12 guided missile has already been under development. The ministry said that the missile would be put under mass production this year. Due to the lack of testing space at the island nation, Japan plans to hold some of its hypersonic missile tests at military bases in the United States.

Another contract is underway between the Japanese government and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the development of submarine-launched long-range anti-ship guided missiles. The development would begin this year and testing is planned for 2027. The timing for the deployment of submarine-launched missiles is still undecided.

Rapid development and mass production of long-range missiles is a part of Japan’s new National Security Strategy. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has asked his Cabinet to secure enough funds to raise defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) within the next five years.

Japan is diverging from its pacifist constitution amid growing threats from regional rivals. The national security policy indicates that Japan is planning for the largest military build-up since World War II. In December 2022, the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced that it had been actively working to improve the range of its domestically produced Type 12 surface-to-surface cruise missiles.

^{Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida inspecting Type-19 155 mm wheeled self-propelled howitzer and a Type-12 surface-to-ship missile during a review at Camp Asaka in Tokyo in November 2021. (Image Credit: Kiyoshi Ota/via Reuters)}

North Korea has frequently been testing its domestically produced ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan. In October 2022, one of these ballistic missiles flew over Tokyo resulting in chaos and alerting the Japanese administration to activate threat sirens in Tokyo, warning residents of falling debris. It was the first time since 2017 that North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan.

As an immediate response to North Korea’s threat, the Japanese government made a deal to acquire at least 400 units of U.S.-made Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles to reinforce its counterstrike capabilities. The introduction of the Tomahawk, a mainly land-attack cruise missile, would allow Japanese forces to attack enemy bases and other targets overseas until its own domestically produced Type 12 long-range missile is ready for deployment.