Japan and the United States will agree to jointly develop a missile to intercept hypersonic warheads being developed by China, Russia and North Korea. This was reported on Sunday by the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. The collaboration is expected to start this week.
Without disclosing the source of the information, the newspaper wrote that the agreement is expected to take place during Friday’s meeting of the president Joe Biden with the prime minister Japan Fumio Kishida, which will take place in the USA. Confirmation could not be obtained from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs because Sunday is a public holiday. Biden and Kishida will meet on the sidelines of a tripartite summit with South Korean President Jun Suk Jeol at the presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland.
Meeting of Joe Biden and Fumio KishidaKiyoshi Ota/PAP/EPA
A second such agreement?
Unlike typical ballistic warheads that follow predictable trajectories, hypersonic missiles can change course, making them difficult to track. United States and Japan agreed in January to consider developing an interceptor during a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin with their Japanese counterparts, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, the newspaper reported.
She added that the agreement would be the second of its kind in missile defense technology between Japan and the US.
American tests of hypersonic weaponsNASA
Main photo source: Kiyoshi Ota/PAP/EPA