Japan has deployed advanced Patriot missile launchers at an air base near Tokyo to bolster the ballistic missile defense shield for the nation's capital, officials said yesterday.
Two PAC-3 launchers were deployed at the Self Defense Forces' Narashino base, just east of Tokyo, according to a Defense Ministry official. She refused to say whether missiles have been deployed with the launchers, saying that this was classified.
This is a second deployment of the PAC-3 defense system in the Tokyo area. The first was set up at Iruma base in March. There are two launchers there as well, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Japan, concerned by the threat of North Korea, plans to deploy the PAC-3 defense system at nine more bases by March 2011.
The deployment comes as Japan is rapidly beefing up its defenses.
The ministry is reportedly planning to conduct anti-ballistic missile drills in the Tokyo area beginning next month, setting up PAC-3 systems at about 10 locations throughout the city.
The drills are aimed at testing the locations to see if there are any communications obstacles in the surrounding areas and determine the best sites for future deployment, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. The ministry plans to conduct similar drills in the central, western and southwestern regions later, the Yomiuri said.
Officials at the Defense Ministry confirmed that they intend to conduct drills, but refused to give any details.
The Patriot missiles would be used as a last resort if interceptors fired from US or Japanese ships fail to knock out incoming missiles.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing
RSS