Japan and the United States (US) will sign an agreement later this week to work together to develop an interceptor missile to counter hypersonic warheads being developed by China, Russia, and North Korea.
According to the Yomiuri newspaper of Japan, an agreement on interceptors to target weapons designed to elude current ballistic missile defences is expected to be signed when US President Joe Biden meets Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the United States (US) on Friday.
Unlike traditional ballistic warheads, which fall from space to their targets along predictable trajectories, hypersonic projectiles can change course, making them harder to aim.
According to the Yomiuri, Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida will meet on the margins of a trilateral summit with President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea at the presidential retreat at Camp David, in the US state of Maryland.
At a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and their Japanese counterparts, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, in January, the US and Japan decided to consider developing the missile interceptor.
In order to defend against potential North Korean missile strikes, the United States (US) and Japan have developed a longer-range missile that can reach warheads in space. Japan has already deployed this missile on warships in the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula.
