Japan to Purchase 400 Tomahawk Missiles: Kishida

Tokyo, Feb. 27 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday that the government plans to purchase 400 U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles for possible use in the exercise of counterstrike capabilities.

It is the first time for the government to disclose how many Tomahawk missiles it plans to buy. Meanwhile, Kishida avoided mentioning how much per missile the government will spend.

Kishida was responding to a question from Yuichi Goto of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, at a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament.

The government clarified the possession of counterstrike capabilities when it revised the country's three key national security documents late last year.

It plans to deploy the latest Tomahawk model with a range of about 1,600 kilometers in fiscal 2026 to 2027.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]