Adaptation of Aegis system to shore-based deployments.
Japan’s Defence Ministry said on Monday (15 June) that it has decided to stop unpopular plans to deploy two costly land-based US missile defence systems, consisting of two Aegis Ashore units, which were to be aimed primarily at bolstering the country’s capability against possible attacks from North Korea.
In 2017 the Japanese government approved adding the two missile defence systems to bolster the country’s defence network which is based on Aegis-equipped destroyers at sea and Patriot missiles on land. However, the proposed deployment proved problematic and was unpopular among many Japanese, particularly among the residents in the proposed deployment zones.
Defence Minister Taro Kono told reporters that he decided to “stop the deployment process” of the Aegis Ashore systems after it was found that the safety of one of the two planned host communities could not be ensured without a hardware redesign that would be extremely time consuming and costly.
“Considering the cost and time it would require, I had no choice but judge that pursuing the plan is not logical.”
Defence officials claimed that the two Aegis Ashore units could cover Japan entirely from one station at Yamaguchi in the south and another at Akita in the north. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government will now have to reconsider the configuration of Japan’s missile defence program.
The plan to deploy the two missile defence systems already had faced a series of delays and setbacks, including questions about the selection of one of the sites, repeated cost estimate hikes that climbed to 450 billion yen ($4.1 billion) for their 30-year operation and maintenance, and safety concerns that led to local opposition.
Critics have also claimed that the systems were more likely to serve US than Japanese security interests, in particular for the interception of long-range North Korean missiles potentially targetting Guam or Hawaii. Moreover, the deployment could contravene the country’s war-renouncing constitution.
Defence Minister Kono said that Japan had already spent 180 billion yen ($1.7 billion) for the systems, but that not everything will go to waste because the system is compatible with those used on Japanese destroyers.
It was ultimately the inability to guarantee the safety of the community in Yamaguchi that was the deal breaker. Defence officials had promised that any boosters used to intercept a missile flying over Japan would fall only on a military base there, and ensuring a safe fall of boosters to the base was proving impossible with the current design of the systems, Kono said.
Japan chose Aegis Ashore over a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system because of its cheaper cost and versatility. The deployment of THAAD in South Korea triggered protests from China, with Beijing seeing it as a security threat. LINK
The US has already installed the land-based Aegis Ashore in Romania and Poland, and Japan was to be the third country to host the system.
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more good news hahahahaha
They can put it in Israel, always welcomed!
I think it is also a matter of money from US perspective (in addition to NK issues), having flown stand-by so many times in the past, one can understand the Pentagon perspective….paying customers are needed to keep the machine running as opposed to those acquiring same items that are heavily subsidized by the wider client base…Soviet Union had same problem as too many subsidized allies helped suck them dry, while US and UK have been very adept at maintaining Global influence through favorable, more extractive, economic relationships.
Israel can pay for those systems and another layer of defense would be useful for us in the next coming war. The money is no the issue, but I think the U.S wants to put them in Guam or other strategic area closer to NK and China.
Yeah probably, pretty much the same way that additional S-400s will be quite welcome in Iran to complement their own Bavar-373 and Talash systems I’m sure.
Except that technically, Israel never actually pays for German or American hardware. They are most of the time given as free gifts within various formats and framework of “national friendship programs” that include transfers of technology and know-how on top of the weapon systems themselves. Germany arguably owes a lot to the population of Israel for obvious historical reasons, and to this day stands second biggest and unconditional ally by being a major arms supplier of Tel-Aviv right after Washington. The most high-profile transfer consisted of two state-of-the-art 100% German-made submarines that allow the Israeli navy to deploy its illegal and undeclared nuclear-tipped cruise missile arsenal into its silos.
The backside of this is obviously that many sensitive elements of its own military industry are actually coming straight from American or German production chains and machine-tools without which they cannot produce them themselves, which has prevented several major arms sales to third parties not validated by either countries.
gryzor the way things are headed now, the mullah regime will fall down even before a major war starts so I’m not worried about their weapon systems. I am worried about Hezbollah though, having 150K rockets right at our border is something we would have to deal with eventually and that is mostly a political question rather than a military one. So we have Germany and the U.S helping us, but China and Russia helping Iran. In the end it’s business that is good for all sides and everyone gets their cut in the ME. I would say it’s fair, the prolonged sanctions will have their own affect on Iran and you know what they say – once the people are hungry no force can stop them.
more stupidity from Z—sanctions always fail—something demonstrated by the US anti-think tank, Hudson Institute
Tell it to the Iranian people.
I wouldn’t bet my money on them falling overnight,even though I also think it should and will happen some time down the line for Iranians to put an end to the theocratic tyranny and its endemic corruption. First , because Donald is done for in terms of reelections hopes and will vanksh from the political scene much sooner than any Iranian mullah. And so will his sanctions regime once Joe replaces him in office in a few months. Sadly one of the stupidest things that dumb POTUS has ever accomplished through it inhumane and completely illegal unilateral set of sanctions is that it immensely hurts the ordinary citizen rather than basically anyone on the regime’s side, that furthermore has actually benefitted from sanctions via the black market that they control and running full steam in sanctions times. The resulting level of anti-american and anti-Israeli resentment has reached unseen heights including the traditionnally mro-wedt Northern Tehran. The reason for this being most iranians know full well that this post-Obama policy comes from Bibi whispering at Donald’s and Pompeo’s ears and his well-known and publicizid hatred not against the mullahs alone, but the Iranian people and nation as a whole dating back centuries if not millenias. That reality make it very unlikely for Iran as a country to turn into an American satellite sympathetic to Israel overnight even if a genuine Revolution is to happen and succeed. If there is truly a nationalistic overthrow of the regime by Iranians and not some opportunistic US partial invasion like in Syria,the military industries and armed.forces wpn’t vanish overnight either and will remain a force to be reckoned with,just like Saddam had a taste when burning its fingers trying to use the 79 Revolution and its relative chaos to attack the country with full American blessing. The tupical exampne is myself : I’m an european with Persian.descent,i hate the Mullahs and wish they are gone, but in the event they do,I will still firmly opose the reopning lf an Israeli embassy in my home country so long as they behave like a criminal state in so many matters. And believe me,there are many,many of us just like that,equally hating the regime and also the current backers of those excruciatingly painful sanctions they push to impose and keep pressing on our people’s throat and allowing the mullahs to pressure us even more. Only the monarchist nostalgics remain conditionnally on your side and consider that the people who once overthrew their king deserves to suffer like that as some kind of punishment,and believe me,there aren”t many left around, and they mostly live in luxury bubles in Los Angeles,far from anything Iranian. As a Frenh-Iranian I will always support a new Revolution for my forefathers’ nation, just as much as I will support any legitimate party seeking liberation from Israeli occupation on their lands,would they be Syrians,Lebanese, or Palestinians,it makes no diffeece and their right to live freely and sovereign upon their own soil is guaranteed by every international and philosophical laws anyway.
Israel is an ameriakn colony—they beg and receive more than 3 billion$ annually from US….Iran’s missile defence is consided to be equal to or better than the Russian s-300….they produce advanced missiles w both solid and liquid fuel, drones, stealth, etc….so far the USA has not shot “down” one of their “flying” fast boats….little is published about their Air Force….they will not be attacked—Sadaam learned a cruel lesson when Iraq invaded Iran at the behest of the USA
imperialism is only attractive to fascists and lying CIA trolls—US influence only exists in hegemonies island nations like Haiti…US has a fake economy …bankrupt, indebted w fake money, expected to decline in value by 35% in 1-2 years according to Yale academics
Straight up it’s asss
Aren’t the systems also obsolete, owing length of time it took for them to get to active stage?
not only Japan rejects amerikan trash–S. Korea has, Indonesia has, Australia has—the incompetent f-35 is only purchased by other nations when the US gives them the money to do so
Good for japan: