Missile defense costs grow despite uncertain effects

December 29, 2017

Tokyo- The government's recent decision to acquire the Aegis Ashore ground-based missile defense system in response to North Korean threats will push up Japan's cumulative spending to build a missile shield above 2 trillion yen.

With related equipment's capabilities to intercept incoming missiles yet to be verified in action, however, it is not known whether the project is worth the enormous costs, analysts said.

"The addition of Aegis Ashore will create a multilayered missile defense system," Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said on Dec. 19, after the government decision at a cabinet meeting.

Japan's missile shield currently has two stages. The Standard Missile-3, or SM-3, interceptors installed on Aegis destroyers are intended to shoot down missiles in outer space, while ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, batteries are used to destroy missiles at altitudes of higher than 10 kilometers.

The Aegis Shore system will bolster outer space defense.

The government started setting aside ballistic missile defense-related spending in the budget for fiscal 2004, and the cumulative total through fiscal 2017 stood at 1,845.1 billion yen.

Including funds earmarked under the fiscal 2018 draft budget, the figure will exceed 2 trillion yen. Nearly 200 billion yen for the acquisition of two Aegis Ashore batteries from the United States will be added in fiscal 2019 and beyond.

Procurement under the U.S. government's Foreign Military Sales, or FMS, program has contributed to pushing up related expenditures as the market mechanism usually does not work well in the program, analysts said.

Following the escalation of provocative acts by North Korea, "the ballistic missile defense budget should be given top priority," a senior official of the Defense Ministry said. Jiji Press