Defense Min. Asks For Record High Budget To Sharply Boost Capabilities
Japan's Defense Ministry is requesting a record high budget allocation of nearly 5.6 trillion yen, or about 40 billion dollars, for next fiscal year.
The ministry made the budget request on Wednesday as part of its drive to drastically enhance Japan's defense capabilities over the next five years.
The ministry plans to start large-scale production of new long-range standoff missiles that can attack targets from outside enemy range and could be used for counterstrikes.
They include an improved version of the Ground Self-Defense Force's ground-to-ship missile and high-speed glide bombs to defend remote islands.
The ministry also plans to develop unmanned aircraft that can be used not just for surveillance and information gathering, but also to launch attacks.
The ministry says it will construct vessels equipped with the Aegis anti-ballistic missile system.
The system can respond to ballistic missiles as well as hypersonic glide weapons, which are said to be more difficult to intercept. This comes in place of a scrapped plan to deploy the land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense system.