By RIA Novosti
Tokyo : Japan and the US are planning to conduct their first joint exercises on countering a potential missile attack in January 2008, a Japanese newspaper said Thursday.
An expert committee under the Japanese government concluded last week that the country must be able to use its missile interceptors to shoot down ballistic missiles aimed at the US.
The Yomiuri daily quoted government sources as saying that the joint exercise "aims to improve cooperation between the Self-Defence Forces and US forces, which is essential for missile defence."
The site of the exercise may be the Sea of Japan, using the scenario of a missile attack by North Korea, the paper said.
North Korea became one of Tokyo's biggest security worries after it test-fired a long-range ballistic missile over Japan in 1998, prompting Tokyo to begin researching missile defence.
Japan's determination to boost its missile defences was strengthened after Pyongyang conducted a series of ballistic missile tests in July 2006, and an underground nuclear test explosion three months later.
Earlier this year Shinzo Abe, who has been vying for stronger military ties with the Pentagon since his election as premier in September 2006, used his Liberal Democratic Party's parliamentary majority to push for a national referendum on the broader use of the Japanese military.
The prevailing view among the Japanese leadership is that outdated legislation hampers its cooperation with its ally the United States on a joint ballistic missile defence programme. This is because the country cannot shoot down missiles though it can cooperate in the early detection of potential missile launches by "rogue states" – in particular North Korea.
During the exercise, the maritime self-defence force (MSDF) will deploy one of its five Aegis-equipped destroyer vessels, Kongo, which will team with US Navy Aegis-equipped vessels that have SM-3 capabilities.
The US SM-3 interceptor missiles are designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in mid-trajectory at altitudes up to 300 km. "The exercise, which will be the practical start of the Japan-US missile defence system, will be held after the Kongo holds its first test-fire exercises off Hawaii in December," the paper said.
By 2011, Japan plans to deploy a two-tier missile shield combining sea and land-based systems.
The land-based part of the shield comprises the US Patriot PAC-3 systems, which will be deployed at four ground-to-air missile units and set to shoot down missiles before they hit the ground.
Under a December 2004 missile defence cooperation arrangement with the US, Japan deployed a high-resolution radar last year that can detect incoming missiles at the Air Self-Defence Force's Shariki base in Tsugaru, about 360 miles northeast of Tokyo.