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Saturday July 22, 4:34 AMJapan's 6th Aegis warship to be deployed in Sasebo base(Kyodo) _ Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force has decided to deploy the nation's sixth Aegis warship to be equipped with sea-based Standard Missile-3 interceptor missile system at its Sasebo base in Nagasaki Prefecture, according to MSDF sources.Currently, Japan has a fleet of four 7,250-ton Aegis destroyers -- the Kongou, based in Sasebo, Choukai in Sasebo, Myoukou in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, and Kirishima in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. The sixth Aegis warship is being built in Nagasaki City for deployment in the spring of 2008. The new 7,700-ton vessel is a larger version of the four destroyers now in service. The fifth Aegis vessel, the Atago, to be commissioned next spring, is set to be deployed at the MSDF's Maizuru base. As a result, five of the six Aegis warships will be deployed at MSDF bases along the Sea of Japan or near the East China Sea from spring 2008 in a move meant to shield Japan from ballistic missiles. The nation's missile defense system calls for Aegis warships to detect ballistic missiles using high-performance radar systems and shoot down these targets at altitudes of 200 to 300 kilometers. Japan's current Aegis warships are equipped with SM-2 interceptors mainly designed to intercept aircraft. The MSDF is planning to upgrade them to SM-3 interceptors in a bid to bolster the nation's capability to intercept ballistic missiles at a level far higher than its current capability. The envisioned version of the Aegis system is meant to monitor and track incoming missiles and automatically fire the SM-3 interceptor missiles, which will be guided by the Aegis system to shoot down their targets. The Aegis system with the SM-3 interceptor has an improved guidance system. Moreover, the SM-3 provides a far longer range than the SM-2 interceptor. Japan and the United States are seeking to set up a two-step missile defense system in Japan in which an incoming ballistic missile is dealt with by first firing an SM-3 interceptor from a destroyer at sea when the missile is still outside the atmosphere, and if that fails, firing a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor. The PAC-3 system is designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in their final phase, after they have reentered the Earth's atmosphere and have descended to altitudes of just over a dozen km and before they reach their targets on the ground, according to Defense Agency officials. |
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