Tokyo the 21st of August, : Tokyo, Aug.21 : Japanese government wants to increase the range of its Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles to at least 1,000km, and also modify them so that they can be launched from aircrafts and vessels and also to hit ground targets in to close the “missile gap” with China, local media said.A new version that launches from the ground of the missile could be operational 2 years sooner than scheduled, possibly in 2024, Japanese newspaper Yomiuri reported on Sunday, citing a number of government officials.
The newspaper reported that Tokyo will eventually want “more than 1,000” missiles to be that are deployed across the Nansei Islands.
The missile plan that has been reported is believed to be part of what the newspaper described as the “Taiwan contingency” initiative.In December of last year Japan’s Self-Defence Forces (SDF) and the US military were said to have reached an agreement to set up an assault base on the Nansei Islands in the event of an “emergency” in the event of a conflict be triggered in the region between Taiwan and Beijing, RT reported.
Tokyo officials quoted in the nation’s Kyodo News at the time stated that, if the plan is implemented the plan would see US Marines stationed on the Nansei Islands at a temporary base for attack, with the SDF providing assistance in the form of additional troops in the event of there was a threat from the military to Taiwan could be imminent.
To justify these “counterstrike capabilities” to justify such capabilities, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party previously indicated that it plans to amend and possibly define the present National Security Strategy by the end of year with a focus on the possibility that Japan is able to acquire weapons to attack bases of enemy forces.
This is a delicate issuegiven Japan’s defense-oriented constitutionthat explicitly prohibits military action, RT reported.
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