Japanese and US process to develop new weapon aimed at striking hypersonic warheads developed by China and Russia
Japan and the United States will agree this week jointly develop an interceptor missile to counter hypersonic warheads developed by China, Russia and North Korea.
The Japanese-American agreement, which expected to be done when US President Joe Biden meets Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday.
The target weapons designed to evade existing anti-ballistic missile defenses.
Unlike conventional ballistic warheads, which fly in predictable trajectories as they fall from space on their targets, hypersonic projectiles can change trajectory, making them more difficult to target.
Biden and Kishida will meet on the sidelines of the tripartite summit with South Korean President Yoon Sok Yul at the presidential resort in Camp David, Maryland.
The United States and Japan agreed in January to consider developing the interceptor at a meeting of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin with their Japanese counterparts, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada.
The agreement will be the second cooperation of its kind in missile defense technology.
Washington and Tokyo have developed a long-range missile to target warheads in space, and Japan is deploying it on warships in the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula to protect against North Korean missiles.
