Japan and the United States will carry out extensive joint missile technology research to intercept hypersonic glide missiles deployed by China and Russia, reported Asia Nikkei on December 4.
Russia has already deployed a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), while China is said to have started using the DF-17, a ballistic missile capable of delivering the HGV warhead.
According to the report, Japan's Ministry of Defense will start developing an anti-missile interceptor that can function at altitudes beyond current anti-missile defenses by 2023.
Japan's ballistic missile defense system is divided into two parts. The first line of defense is SM-3 interceptor missiles fired from Aegis ships at sea. It aims to take down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere.
If the SM-3 is not successful, the ground-based Patriot PAC-3 surface-to-air missile will attempt to take down the target when it re-enters the atmosphere at an altitude of 20 kilometers or less. The newest PAC-3 versions are believed to be able to engage HGVs at any time before they engage a target, but being ground-based their range of protection is limited.
The news regarding the Japan-US cooperation report follows from last month that Tokyo intends to modify its current Type-03 medium-range missile air defense system to intercept hypersonic missiles.
Despite the joint US and Japanese efforts, a Russian military analyst predicts that neither Washington nor Tokyo will be able to build a missile that can take down the Russian Avangard hypersonic missile.
Our Avangard develops a speed of Mach 27; a US-Japan rocket would have to fly faster than the speed of sound by 40 times – this is unrealistic,” he said.
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