The news that the Japanese government plans to introduce a US-made "Tomahawk" cruise missile to "significantly enhance defense capabilities" caused a shock in East Asia not long ago. But those who are familiar with Japanese weapons and equipment are inevitably confused: the Japanese government has just decided to develop long-range cruise missiles based on domestically produced Type 12 anti-ship missiles, so why does it have to purchase the "Tomahawk" cruise missile from the United States at a high price?
The website of the US Navy Society revealed the mystery on the 28th: the introduction of " Tomahawk " can allow Japan Self-Defense Force to obtain remote ground strike capabilities earlier - Japan can no longer wait.
reported that the Japanese Ministry of Defense is currently expanding the range of the domestically produced Type 12 ground-to-ship missile deployed by the Ground Self-Defense Force , from the current 125 miles (200 kilometers) to 750 miles (1200 kilometers). But the enhanced Type 12 surface-to-surface missile will not be ready until at least 2026, "it is too late to deal with the ever-expanding threat from China and North Korea."
According to the report of Japan's " Yomiuri Shimbun ", the Japanese Ministry of Defense is considering deploying the Tomahawk missile from land, sea and air, and considering using the submarine as a launch platform. Considering the difficulty of developing derivative models of different platforms, this means that the domestically produced Type 12 anti-ship missile must have the same performance and will take longer.
From another perspective, the Japanese government's consideration of introducing the "Tomahawk" missile is related to Japan's cancellation of the land-based Aegis anti-missile system in 2020. US media mentioned that the Japanese government's original position was to use the ballistic missile defense interception system to deal with the " ballistic missile threat from North Korea", but then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe directly questioned at a press conference on August 28, 2020: "We will study whether people's lives can only be protected by improving their interception capabilities."
This statement is believed to indicate that the Japanese government intends to give up the idea of simple defense and instead seeks to have some offensive capabilities that can counterattack and destroy enemy missile launch bases. Shinzo Abe's idea was also inherited by the current Fumio Kishida government. Kishida Fumio said in Congress on December 12 that "In order to protect the lives and livelihoods of our citizens, we will review all possible ways, including the so-called strike capabilities against enemy bases, and do not rule out any options." The "Tomahawk" missile is a cruise missile , which is mainly used for land attacks. The introduction of this missile will allow the Japanese Self-Defense Force to attack enemy bases and other overseas targets, "this may cause controversy." The Japanese government plans to revise three key defense documents, namely the National Security Strategy, " Defense Plan Outline " and "Medium-term Defense Power Preparation Plan", by the end of 2022. The detailed plan for long-range cruise missiles, including the introduction of "Tomahawk", will be described in these documents.
It is not clear which model of Tomahawk cruise missile may be introduced by the Japanese government: the Block IV currently in service in the U.S. Navy or the more advanced Block V that has just been delivered in 2021. According to reports, since the Tomahawk missile was put into service, multiple models have been developed. So far, the United States and allies have conducted 550 flight tests on the Tomahawk missiles and fired more than 2,300 in combat. The most recent use was in 2018, when the U.S. Navy launched 66 Tomahawk missiles at the Syrian target.
"Tomahawk" Block V cruise missile
Currently, the US Navy is mainly equipped with the "Tomahawk" Block IV. Its range is more than 1,000 miles and can strike moving targets at sea. It also has dynamic aiming capabilities, can aim new targets during flight and transmit battlefield images back to the launch platform. The "Tommahawk" Block V uses more advanced missile-loading guidance equipment and data links, and its performance has been further improved.Its maximum range is 1852 kilometers, its flight speed is 0.72 Mach, and its cruise flight altitude is 10-250 meters. It uses a composite guidance system of "inertial guidance + GPS guidance + digital scene matching area related guidance + infrared guidance", and the hit accuracy reaches 7.62 meters. The aerodynamic appearance of the "Tomahawk" Block V cruise missile has also been optimized for certain stealth.
Source: Privy Council No. 10
