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Japan against joining U.S.
global missile shield - Baluyevsky
RIA
Novosti
Friday, April 11, 2008
Japan will not join the U.S. global missile defense network
in the near future despite close cooperation with the U.S. on
boosting its own missile defenses, Russia's chief of the General
Staff said Friday.
"Japan is not planning to integrate its national missile
shield into the U.S. global missile network," Gen. Yury Baluyevsky
said after talks with his Japanese counterpart Adm. Takashi Saito
in Moscow.
Under a December 2004 missile defense cooperation arrangement
with the U.S., Japan intends to build by 2011 a national missile-defense
network comprising sea- and land-based components.
(Article continues below)
Japan's determination to boost its missile defenses was strengthened
after North Korea conducted a series of ballistic missile tests
in July 2006, and an underground nuclear test explosion three
months later.
Japan's Cabinet endorsed in December 2007 a review of emergency
missile defense rules giving Self-Defense Forces (SDF) the discretion
to fire missile interceptors without the premier's go ahead.
The government also authorized the use of U.S. SM-3 interceptor
missiles as part of Japan's two-layer missile shield.
The U.S. sea-based SM-3 interceptor missiles are designed to
intercept incoming ballistic missiles in mid-trajectory at altitudes
up to 300 kilometers (about 190 miles), while land-based U.S.
Patriot PAC-3 systems, which will be deployed at four ground-to-air
missile units, are expected to shoot down missiles before they
hit the ground.
During a test-launch on December 17 last year from the Japanese
Aegis-equipped destroyer Kongou, an SM-3 interceptor shot down
a simulated target over the Pacific near Hawaii.
However, Japan is opposed to the use of space-based elements
in a global missile shield which Washington is proposing.
U.S. plans to deploy elements of the missile shield in Central
Europe are expected to cost $1.6 billion over the next five years.
The program will later be expanded to include sea-based missiles
and missile tracking systems in space.
Washington insists that space-based systems would provide anti-missile
protection independent of geographic location, strategic warning
or permission to deploy bases, and would make it possible to intercept
ballistic missiles in mid-trajectory.
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