By KUNA,
Kuwait : Japan will move the command post for its missile defense system from a Self-Defense Force facility to a US airbase this year.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the plan will boost the county’s defense capabilities, said Japan Broadcasting Corporation, monitored here, on Thursday.
It said the plan will see the Air Self-Defense Force Command in Fuchu, Tokyo move into the compound of the US Yokota airbase in the same city.
The shift will begin in March and is expected to be complete within the year, it added.
The ministry said the move will help the Self Defense Force improve its speed of detection and response to incoming missiles identified by US early-warning satellites, it noted.
The ministry also says it plans to spend about 240 million dollars buying ground-based PAC-3 interceptor missiles and deploying them at a SDF base in Okinawa Prefecture, for the first time this year, it added.
The ministry is considering deploying the PAC-3 missile system to northern Japan, Hokkaido and Tohoku, but the details of that plan have not been decided, it pointed out.