Japan, US to jointly develop hypersonic missile interceptor
Japan and the United States will jointly develop a new type of missile to intercept hypersonic projectiles being developed by countries such as North Korea, China and Russia, government sources said Monday.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden are expected to agree on the plan during their bilateral talks at the Camp David retreat near Washington on Friday, according to the sources.
Tokyo and Washington are aiming to beef up their deterrence capabilities in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs and Beijing’s intensifying military activities in the Indo-Pacific region including joint exercises with Moscow.
Hypersonic missiles, which travel at a top speed of over Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, are hard to shoot down and track by radar.
At a meeting in Tokyo in June, Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada and his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin pledged to deepen cooperation on joint development of an interceptor to use against hypersonic technology.
On Friday, Kishida and Biden are also set to hold a trilateral summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at Camp David.
