WorldTekhno.com – Japan has not been silent about the advances in China’s military equipment in recent years that have become a threat to several countries around the world, including Japan, which is currently in dispute with China.
Through the Agency for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (ATLA), Japan’s Ministry of Defense is developing a hypersonic cruise missile, with the ability to fly five times the speed of sound (Mach 5). As reported by ASIA TIMES, the sophisticated missile was developed in collaboration with Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Mitsubishi will produce scramjet engines to power the hypersonic missiles.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense stated that this missile is part of the Hypervelocity Glide Projectile (HVGP) that is planned to be operational for the initial version of the missile in 2026, and will continue with an upgraded version after 2028.
With its success in creating this missile, Japan will become the fourth country in the world capable of mastering hypersonic missile technology after China, Russia and the United States. Hypersonic technology allows the missile to travel at high speed in the upper atmosphere, a weak point for air defense systems, and then follow a complex trajectory, making it difficult to intercept with existing missile shields.
To meet Japan’s “exclusive defense-oriented policy” requirements, the range of the missiles will be limited to around 500 km/310 miles. Italy, Japan and the UK have announced plans to combine their fighter aircraft development projects in major partnerships outside the United States (US) since World War II.
The deal aims to operate advanced front-line fighter aircraft by 2035 by “marrying” the UK-led Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project, also known as Tempest, with Japan’s F-X program. The deal comes as China ramps up military activity around Taiwan, which it claims as its own, and in the disputed South China Sea, where Beijing is seeking to boost its far-reaching claims with military installations on artificial islands it has built.
Northeast Asia is also in competition with North Korea, which has conducted an unprecedented number of missile launches this year amid fears that it may soon test its newest nuclear weapon. Japan, which has a pacifist constitution, has announced it will double its defense spending over the next five years to around 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). ***
