Japan Announces Start of Tomahawk Missile Deliveries to MSDF

Tokyo, March 13 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Friday that deliveries of U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles to the Maritime Self-Defense Force have begun. The missiles will be deployed as part of Japanese efforts to develop standoff defense capability for attacking adversaries from outside their firing range. The deployment will “help deter armed attacks against our country,” Koizumi told a news conference. Tomahawks have a maximum range of some 1,600 kilometers. The Japanese government signed an agreement with the U.S. government to obtain up to 400 Tomahawk missiles from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2027. By this summer, the Defense Ministry will dispatch the Aegis destroyer Chokai, which will be the first Japanese vessel to carry Tomahawks, to the United States for a live-fire test of the weapon in a test sea area of the allied nation. Koizumi also announced the start of deliveries of Norway’s Joint Strike Missile antisurface and antiship weapons to be mounted on F-35 fighter jets of the Air SDF. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]