An exclusive news report by Yomiuri Shimbun says the Japanese government is considering having over 1,000 of its long-range cruise missiles under development. Due to the recent Taiwan contingencies, these missiles will be stationed from the Nansei Islands (Ryukyu Islands) to Kyushu to bridge the “missile gap” with China. To produce a large number of missiles, the Ministry of Defence intends to request money in the FY 2023 budget to help the missile’s component suppliers ramp up their production.
Several government officials confirmed this. The government will extend the range of the domestically produced Type 12 surface-to-ship missile deployed by the Ground Self-Defence Force from over 100 kilometres to about 1,000 kilometres, reaching the coastal areas of North Korea and China. Improvements are being made so that it can be launched from ships and fighter planes. The improved ground-launched version will be deployed in fiscal 2024, about two years earlier than initially planned.
In the National Security Strategy to be revised at the end of the year, the government is expected to announce the possession of “counterattack capability” to attack the enemy’s missile launching bases for self-defence. Improved missiles will be the core of the “counterattack capability.”
Until now, Japan has not deployed long-range missiles capable of ground-attacking, as it had a policy of not possessing “enemy base attack capability” (counterattack capability).
