Japan Eyes 3 Options for New Missile Defense System

Tokyo, Sept. 24 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government on Thursday presented three options for the country’s new missile defense system as alternatives to an abandoned plan to deploy Aegis Ashore land-based interceptors.

The government aims to narrow down the options by the time when it compiles a fiscal 2021 budget plan late this year.

The options were presented at a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after the government scrapped the Aegis Ashore plan in June.

One of the three options calls for building a new destroyer armed with an interceptor system. The two others are for deploying the system at an offshore facility or on a private vessel.

The option to build a new destroyer includes choices for constructing a destroyer focusing on missile defense or a conventional destroyer.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]