Hoping to fill gaps in defenses against a possible North Korean missile attack, the United States has ironed out plans to field a second missile-defense radar in Japan, the Pentagon announced Oct. 3.
The Army Navy Transportable Radar Surveillance system (AN-TPY-2) “will be placed at the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force base at Kyogamisaki [on Japan’s west coast], where it will augment one previously set up in Shariki on the northern part of Honshu Island,” Japan’s largest island, the Pentagon said. The Raytheon-built radar, also known as “Tippy-Two,” will search for and track incoming missiles and can be integrated with land- and sea-based interceptor missile systems.
"What we found after introduction of the first radar in Shariki is that coverage was extensive but imperfect," a U.S. official told reporters. The second radar “will provide additional coverage for the U.S. homeland as well as additional coverage against North Korean ballistic missile threats for the Japanese. Our goal is to have it operational sometime in the next year or so, but … there's no hard deadline there.”
The arrangement is part of a new U.S.-Japan agreement to expand defense ties. The pact, unveiled in Tokyo, also calls for increasing bilateral cooperation on space, cyberspace and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); and deploying more advanced U.S. equipment in Japan, including the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft, the P-8A maritime patrol aircraft, the Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft and the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter.
“We're having a broad discussion with the Japanese about how we can make more efficient and effective use of our ISR capabilities, both manned and unmanned, naval and air,” the official said. “It's a comprehensive effort, so Global Hawk is just one piece of that.”
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