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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Japan to deploy anti missile destroyers for possible NK missile shootdown |
| 2009-03-03 |
| Japan is preparing to deploy a controversial missile defence system against an imminent North Korean rocket launch, in what could be the first use of the so-called "Son of Star Wars" system to knock out an intercontinental ballistic missile. In a move that could have strategic implications for the whole northeast Asian region, the Japanese Government plans to dispatch naval destroyers equipped with anti-missile systems to the seas off North Korea, as the isolated dictatorship continues preparations for the launch of a rocket. As long as the weapon passes through the atmosphere far above Japan, as seems to be the intention, the system will probably not be fired. But if the rocket malfunctions and threatens any of its islands, then Japan will become the first nation to use a long-range missile defence system in anger. "If it is capable of reaching Japan then it goes without saying that we will react," Japan's defence minister, Yasukazu Hamada, said today. "We have been making preparations, including BMD [ballistic missile defence], for any incident which could affect Japan. If it will affect Japan then it will be our target." |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #7 RIAN > RUSSIAN GENERAL: US MAY HAD PLANNED SATELLITES COLLISION [read, technically an ACT OF WAR BY USA AGZ RUSSIA]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-03-03 23:10 |
| #6 Uh, obviously I meant the WWII battleship Kongo in the second reference above - the chuckle coming from seeing the same name on a Japanese ship today .... |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2009-03-03 21:12 |
| #5 I spoke to a conference a while back and the next person on the panel was a comms chief from a CVN. Her presentation focused on exercises with JMSDF units. Kongo was up there, and I just had to chuckle and shake my head. The night before I'd just read an account of "The Night of the Battleships" Oct. 13/14 1942 at Guadalcanal, in which that ship and others gave Henderson a real pasting. And an elderly friend flew in to the 'canal a week after that attack. Back to today's Japanese navy .... cool. The Norks' missile shenanigans (along with China's clumsy bellicosity) have accelerated Japan's return to the geopolitical mainstream by many years. Generational change is part of it, but the course change WRT goofy pacifism (yes, they basically adopted it under our orders, and it all worked out) has been striking, from renaming the Defense Agency a ministry, to little things like a battleship Yamato museum in Kure (with a JMSDF museum across the street) to throngs visiting Chiran (kamikaze base on Kyushu) and the like. I rejoice that our east Asian adversaries have woken a sleeping mid-size giant ally of ours, and filled him with an interesting resolve (and no, I don't think Yamamoto ever actually said what I'm paraphrasing here, but it works - and he clearly understood and felt exactly as the apocryphal quote implied). |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2009-03-03 21:11 |
| #4 bless em! if this is used and works, time to go out for japanese noodles and sapporo beer celebrate. |
| Posted by: haveanoodle55 2009-03-03 19:37 |
| #3 Somebody needs to do it, and there's no sign that it will be Obama. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2009-03-03 19:31 |
| #2 ION MISSLES, WAFF.com > STRATEGYPAGE - THE SILOS OF KHORRAMABAD [IRGC Imam Ali Missle Base = 15 SHAHAB-3's]. ALso, CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > CHINA's TOP PAPER [People's Daily] BLAMES TIBET TROUBLES ON WEST [ WEST intends to DIVIDE + WEAKEN EMERGING POWER CHINA, + divert attention from its own econ woes vee Chin]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-03-03 18:29 |
| #1 *snicker* I wonder how China feels about that? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-03-03 15:57 |