730m yen for Aegis in FY 2018 budget

December 22, 2017

Tokyo- The Japanese government set aside 730 million yen in spending on the Aegis Ashore ground-based missile defense system under the fiscal 2018 draft budget adopted Friday, in response to growing missile threats from North Korea.

The figure, shown on a contract basis, is part of Japan's defense budget totaling 5,191.1 billion yen for the year from April. The total defense spending scale increased 1.3 pct from the fiscal 2017 initial budget and hit a record high for the sixth consecutive year.

The draft budget also includes about 2.2 billion yen for the acquisition of long-range cruise missiles to be mounted on fighter aircraft as well as for related research.

Assuming the deployment of two Aegis Ashore batteries at Self-Defense Forces facilities in Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan, and Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, the government plans to start work on basic design and a geological survey, officials said.

The government booked an additional 2.8 billion yen under the fiscal 2017 supplementary budget for related technological assistance from the United States.

In order to enhance Japan's capability of dealing with missiles launched on a lofted trajectory, the government plans to spend 44 billion yen to acquire Standard Missile-3 Block 2A missile interceptors to be installed on Aegis destroyers with sophisticated radar systems.

It also plans 4.7 billion yen in spending to repair the Japan Aerospace Defense Ground Environment, an automated warning and control system known as JADGE.

The cost of acquiring an improved version of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, missile defense battery was included in the fiscal 2017 extra budget, although the Defense Ministry had sought the expense in its budget requests for fiscal 2018.

Regarding long-range cruise missiles, the government plans to acquire antiship Joint Strike Missiles, or JSMs, with a range of about 500 kilometers and install them on the state-of-the-art F-35A stealth fighter jets.

It will also examine the advisability of acquiring two types of cruise missiles with a range of 900 kilometers.

The government explains that the longer-range cruise missiles are intended for use in the defense of remote islands. As the high-performance missiles can be used for strikes against enemy bases, however, opposition parties have criticized the possible acquisition of the missiles as contravening Japan's strictly defense-only security policy.

Under the fiscal 2018 draft budget, spending on defense equipment procurement under the U.S. government's Foreign Military Sales, or FMS, program increased 50.6 billion yen to 410.2 billion yen.

The sum includes 83.8 billion yen to purchase six F-35A stealth fighters and 68.8 billion yen for the acquisition of four Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft. Jiji Press