DTN News: Pakistan TODAY August 26, 2010 - Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Helicopter Unit Join Relief Efforts In Pakistan

DTN News: Pakistan TODAY August 26, 2010 - Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Helicopter Unit Join Relief Efforts In Pakistan

Source: DTN News By Roger Smith

(NSI News Source Info) TOKYO, Japan - August 26, 2010: The first contingent of a 200-strong Japanese military helicopter unit left for Pakistan Saturday to join international relief efforts across the flood-ravaged nation.

Fifty ground troops left the Japanese city of Fukuoka for an army airfield in Multan, central Pakistan, Japanese media reported. They will prepare the ground for the rest of their unit and six helicopters which will transport people and goods in flood-hit areas, according to the Defence Ministry. A naval transport ship and six air force C-130 transport planes are set to carry the helicopters and the unit's equipment to Pakistan, the ministry said. A total of 530 Japanese ground, air and naval troops will be mobilised for the relief mission. “We hear that the extent of damage is quite serious,” Colonel Atsushi Ishizaki, the commander of the unit, told Japanese media at a ground force base in Fukuoka. “We are proud that we can provide Pakistani people in trouble with something from our heart as Japanese.” The Pakistani military will protect the helicopter unit which will carry no arms while engaging in disaster relief activities in line with Japanese government policy, Kyodo news agency reported. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told reporters on Thursday that the United States had “unofficially” asked Japan to provide assistance to Pakistan. He also said Tokyo recognised the “importance of Pakistan” which neighbours Afghanistan. Tokyo has already extended 14.4 million dollars worth of emergency aid to help Pakistan cope with the disaster. Pakistan has endured its worst floods in 80 years, with millions of people affected by the deluge, prompting UN chief Ban Ki-moon to urge the world to step up international aid.

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

DTN News: Japan Upgrades Missile-Detection System

DTN News: Japan Upgrades Missile-Detection System *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) TOKYO, Japan - July 5, 2009: A new $935 million project called the Japan Aerospace Defense Ground Environment has been initiated to improve the country's automatic air warning and defense control system. JADGE has replaced the Base Air Defense Ground Environment, said Japan's air arm, the Air Self-Defense Force. Japan's official military policy of Self-Defense Only does not allow the nation's armed forces to have strategic bombers, so JADGE is to improve the ASDF's capabilities to counter airborne attacks, such as by airplanes. The new air-defense network also integrates Japan's ballistic missile sensors and interception systems, and is central to protecting the country from ballistic missile attacks by improving early warning systems. JADGE begins operating amid increasing concerns about the threat of North Korean missiles. The Japanese government approved plans at the beginning of June to develop a satellite early warning system for missile launches. Tensions were heightened in April when North Korea launched what it said was a satellite-bearing rocket. It then conducted a nuclear test and several short-range missile launches. JADGE goes some way to satisfying the government's critics that the country's satellite detection systems need upgrading. The superseded Base Air Defense Ground Environment was an integrated network of radar posts and air defense installations throughout the country. BADGE was upgraded in the 1980s with E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft. Other aircraft were replaced in the early 1990s with more sophisticated models. These included the Nike-J, a Japanese version of the Nike-Hercules surface-to-air missile from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and the Patriot PAC-2 ground-to-air missile system built by Raytheon. The ASDF started deploying PAC-3 systems in 2007 and last September successfully tested its capability in New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range. It shot down a mock ballistic missile by firing two PAC-3 missiles in succession. The tests were to gather operational data on the system's radar, launcher and controller set-ups. The government decided in 2003 to build a ballistic missile shield, so antiballistic missile functions were added to the concept. JADGE is now central to the country's ballistic missile shield through search, detection, tracking and interception of ballistic missiles in a centralized and automated manner, according to the ASDF. The new network, which was originally centralized at a base in Fuchu in the suburbs of Tokyo, is also linked to U.S. communications satellites, allowing the United States and Japan to share data. However, a year ago the JASDF began relocating the headquarters of its Air Defense Command to the U.S. base in Yokata, home to the U.S. Air Force's 374th Airlift Wing. The wing provides airlift support to all U.S. Department of Defense agencies in the Pacific. It also provides transport for people and equipment throughout the Kanto Plain and the greater Tokyo area. The ADC headquarters is the supreme Japanese Self-Defense Force command authority and is also headquarters for ballistic missile defense including the new JADGE. The move is to improve coordination between the two forces and around 1,200 Japanese personnel have relocated, costing around $400 million and paid for by the Japanese government. Japan and the United States have no formal agreement to operate their armed forces as a coalition. Efficiencies rely solely on daily and persistent coordination, according to U.S. military officials. The move of Japan's ADC to Yokata is to enhance these interactions, they said.

DTN News: Japan Eyes Bigger Military As Tension Rises: Report

DTN News: Japan Eyes Bigger Military As Tension Rises: Report

*Sources: DTN News / Reuters By Kiyoshi Takenaka

(NSI News Source Info) TOKYO, Japan - June 22, 2009: A draft of Japan's new mid-term defense policy guidelines is calling for the reinforcement of military personnel and equipment in the face of growing regional tensions, Kyodo news agency said. The draft, obtained by Kyodo, says Japan needs to reverse its policy of reducing its defense budgets in light of North Korea's missile launches and nuclear tests, as well as China's rise to a major military power, the news agency said. The document urges the government to raise the number of Ground Self-Defense Forces troops by 5,000 to 160,000, Kyodo said. The new National Defense Program Guidelines, covering five years to March 2015, are scheduled to be adopted by the government by the end of the year. The draft also says there is a need to "secure options responsive to changing situations" of international security, indicating Tokyo's intention of considering if it should be capable of striking enemy bases, Kyodo said. Japan's pacifist constitution has been interpreted as allowing a military only for self-defense and some experts say a pre-emptive strike doctrine would stretch that too far.

Japan Orders Possible North Korean Rocket Interception

Japan Orders Possible North Korean Rocket Interception

(NSI News Source Info) Seoul - March 27, 2009: Japan's military is getting ready to shoot down part or all of the rocket North Korea is planning to launch, if it looks like it will land anywhere on Japanese territory. Meanwhile, senior regional envoys are heading to Washington to craft a diplomatic response to the imminent launch. Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's warships 7,250-ton DDG Kongou, left, and 7,250-ton DDG Choukai are moored at JMSDF Sasebo Base in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture (state), southwestern Japan, Friday, March 27, 2009. The pair of destroyers carrying SM-3 sea-to-air missiles would be deployed to the Sea of Japan as Japan's defense minister ordered the deployment of missile interceptors to the northern coast on Friday to shoot down any debris that could fall on Japanese territory if a North Korean rocket launch fails. Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's warships are moored at JMSDF Sasebo Base in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture (state), southwestern Japan, Friday, 27 Mar 2009

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada says he has ordered the interception of any dangerous debris, if anything goes wrong with North Korea's planned rocket launch.

He says any missile or rocket flying over Japan is unacceptable, and adds Japan will take approriate measures with anything that affects the nation's interests.

Hamada's comments follow a meeting of Japan's Security Council Friday, at which senior officials voted to approve the use of missile defense technology to destroy any part of the North Korean rocket that looks like it will land on Japan.

North Korea says it will launch, what it says is a communications satellite, sometime between April 4 and April 8. The trajectory is expected to cross Northern Japanese territory.

South Korea, Japan, and the United States view the planned launch as an unacceptable attempt to advance the North's ballistic missile program.

The long-range rocket Pyongyang intends to launch is theoretically capable of delivering a warhead as far as the western United States.

Leaders of all three countries, including Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, say the launch will violate a United Nations resolution passed after North Korea's 2006 nuclear weapon test.

He says Japan will strongly protest through the United Nations, while also urging North Korea not to carry out the launch.

North Korea says attempts to shoot down its rocket will be an act of war, and that any additional U.N. sanctions resulting from the launch will deal a fatal blow to six-nation talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons programs.

South Korea's delegate to those talks left Friday for Washington for high-level consulations on a diplomatic response to the launch.

Japan Must Build Defence Capability: PM

Japan Must Build Defence Capability: PM

(NSI News Source Info) YOKOSUKA, Japan - March 23, 2009: Japan must build its defence capabilities and strengthen its alliance with the United States, Prime Minister Taro Aso said on Sunday, ahead of a planned rocket launch by North Korea. Japan has one of the world's best-funded armed forces. The Japan Self-Defense Forces, or JSDF, occasionally referred to as JSF or SDF, are the military forces in Japan that were established after the end of the post-World War II US occupation of Japan. For most of the post-war period the forces were confined to the islands of Japan and not permitted to be deployed abroad. In recent years, they have been engaged in international peacekeeping operations. Recent tensions, particularly with North Korea and China, have reignited the debate over the status of the SDF and its relation to society. Aso cited the threat from North Korea, which has announced plans to launch a communications satellite next month in a move seen by the United States, Japan and South Korea as a cover for a long-range missile test. "You must be well aware that we face many issues in the Asia-Pacific region, including North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile development," Aso told students at a graduation ceremony at the National Defense Academy. "For us to assure peace and stability in Japan, it is extremely important to further strengthen the Japan-US alliance as well as to make its own efforts for self defence." Under its US-imposed 1947 pacifist constitution, Japan renounced using or threatening force in international disputes. It nonetheless has one of the world's best-funded militaries, the Self-Defence Forces (SDF). Japan is developing a missile defence system with the United States. The government has said it is considering re-positioning land and sea-based interceptor missiles so they can shoot down a North Korean rocket if it threatens to hit its territory. Pyongyang has said it would regard interception as an act of war. Earlier this month the conservative Aso sent two Japanese warships for an anti-piracy mission off Somalia in which the nation's armed forces could face combat abroad for the first time since World War II.

Japan: Defense Forces In Military Exercise

Japan: Defense Forces In Military Exercise

(NSI News Source Info) January 27, 2009: Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force helicopters fly in the sky during an annual new year military exercise in Narashino, east of Tokyo January 11, 2009. Some 400 troops and 19 aircraft took part in the exercise.

DTN News: Japan's GSDF Requests Development Funds For Mobile Combat Vehicle ~ New Kido-Sentou-Sya

DTN News: Japan's GSDF Requests Development Funds For Mobile Combat Vehicle ~ New Kido-Sentou-Sya (NSI News Source Info) TOKYO, Japan - July 9, 2008: Japan's Ground Self Defence Force (GSDF) has requested funding for the development of a Mobile Combat Vehicle (MCV, or Kido-Sentou-Sya) in a budgetary request for the 2008 financial year. The funding request for the new 8 x 8 armoured vehicle was approved by the Japanese Cabinet on 24 December 2007 as part of the 2008 budget. This, however, still needs to be approved by the Diet - which rejected funding for the MCV a year earlier. A vote on the budget is set for March 2008, two months later than usual due to the appointment of a new prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, in September 2007. Most armies would describe the MCV - a purely Japanese designation - as a mobile gun system (MGS). It will be armed with a 105 mm low-recoil gun and will fire the same ammunition as the current Type 74 main battle tank (MBT). The total development cost for the MCV is estimated at JPY17.3 billion (USD169 million), with the project planned to end in 2015. The GSDF has asked for an initial JPY2.6 billion for the project in 2008, intended to cover costs of the chassis and turret/weapon system. The MCV will be developed by the Technical Research and Development Institute (TRDI), with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) acting as the prime industrial contractor. The MCV will have a maximum combat weight of under 26 tonnes, which will enable it to be transported in the CX transport aircraft that TRDI is currently developing for the Japanese Air Self Defence Force. The MCV will have a high level of strategic mobility by air and land when compared to the currently deployed Type 74 MBT and Type 89 mechanised infantry combat vehicle (MICV), which lacks strategic mobility.