The US and Japan jointly developed the hypersonic interceptor, and the US media hyped that "it aims to jointly deal with China and Russia"

Source: Global Times

[Global Times comprehensive report] According to the statement of the Pentagon, the United States and Japan signed an official agreement on the joint development of hypersonic missile interceptors on the 15th. The US "Business Insider" website said on the 15th that the US and Japan aimed to jointly deal with the "threat of advanced hypersonic missiles from China and Russia".

According to the website of the US Defense News, the US Missile Defense Agency began to ask Raytheon and Northrop Grumman for the interceptor design scheme for hypersonic missiles as early as 2022. According to the Pentagon's plan, it is mainly used for intercepting hypersonic missiles in the glide phase. In August 2023, Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Kishida and US President Biden initially agreed on the plan of joint development of the interceptor between the two countries at the summit held in Washington. After more than a year of negotiations, the two sides officially signed the agreement.

Japanese defense ministry officials revealed that the cooperative development agreement reached on the 15th determined the responsibility allocation and decision-making process of the entire project. Among them, Japan will be responsible for the development of the rocket engine and the head interceptor propulsion system of this antimissile interceptor, while the United States will undertake the relevant research on target tracking and locking. The US Missile Defense Agency estimates that the cost of developing hypersonic missile interceptors will exceed US $3 billion, of which Japan will bear US $1 billion. According to the current plan, this hypersonic interceptor can be installed in the vertical launch system of Aegis destroyers in service in Japan and the United States, and can be combined with the "Baseline 9" combat system to detect, track, control and intercept hypersonic threats. It is expected to enter service as early as the 1930s.

The United States and Japan declared in the joint statement that "the joint development of this hypersonic interceptor is based on the long-term missile defense cooperation between the United States and Japan, and it will strengthen the deterrence posture of the U.S. - Japan alliance." The report mentioned that this is the second time that the United States and Japan have jointly developed anti missile weapons. The two countries had previously jointly developed "Standard 3" for medium - and long-range missiles with a range of more than 5500 kilometers For Block IIA missiles, Japan is responsible for the development of the third stage rocket engine and nose cone.

According to the "Business Insider" website, the maximum flight speed of hypersonic missiles is more than five times the speed of sound, and they can change their orbits along unpredictable flight routes in the atmosphere. The existing anti missile systems are almost impossible to intercept. Therefore, the hypersonic interceptors promoted by the United States and Japan are of great significance, because both countries face the same threat of hypersonic missiles and are unable to defeat them.

According to the report, although some media reported that the US "Patriot" anti missile system successfully intercepted the Russian army's "Dagger" hypersonic missile, the US military's active anti missile system could not cope with China's "Dongfeng-17" and Russia's "Zircon" and other more advanced hypersonic weapons. In recent years, senior officials of the Pentagon frequently expressed concern about the Chinese and Russian hypersonic missiles, and played up "the United States lacks sufficient active and passive defense measures to withstand the attack of hypersonic weapons". (Chen Shan)