Japan is obtaining anti-ship missile capabilities that could place Chinese People’s Liberation Army vessels near Taiwan under crossfire if Japan joins forces with Taiwan, a defense official said yesterday.
The comment came a day after Jiji Press reported that the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force in June is to conduct target practice exercises with land-based anti-ship missiles on Japanese soil for the first time.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the defense official said the Type-88 and the newer Type-12 surface-to-ship missiles formed the mainstay of Japanese ground forces’ land-based anti-ship capabilities.
Photo: Screen grab from Japanese Ministry of Defense’s Web site
The older system has a range of between 120km and 150km, and the latter based on improvements to its predecessor has an effective range of more than 200km.
Japan is developing extended-range variants of the Type-12, they said.
The “phase one” variant has a planned range of 900km and “phase two” variant has a planned range of 1,200km, the official said.
Should these capabilities come online, the Japanese armed forces would be in a position to add significantly to Taiwan’s deterrence against Chinese aggression, they said.
Cape Irizaki on Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost point, is 120km from Taiwan.
Taiwan’s principal land-based anti-ship systems are the surface-launched versions of the Hsiung Feng II, extended-range Hsiung Feng II, and Hsiung Feng III missiles.
The standard Hsiung Feng II has an engagement range of 148km.
The extended-range variant of the missile, which is known to possess advanced counter-electronic warfare measures, is estimated to be able hit targets somewhere between 160km and 200km away.
The Hsiung Feng III is said to have a 150km to 200km standard engagement range and a 250km maximum range.
The extended range variant of the Hsiung Feng III that is under development is rumored to have a striking range of up to 400km.
The land-based Harpoon anti-ship missile being procured from the US is said to have an effective range of 148km, however this figure cannot be verified with publicly available information.
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