The Asahi Shimbun:

The proposed sea-based alternative to the aborted plan to deploy the Aegis Ashore land-based missile defense systems would require twice as much money despite being far less capable.

The total cost of introducing the envisioned offshore systems would be at least some 900 billion yen ($8.24 billion), even though their overall capability would be one-third of the land-based ones.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s administration needs to break away from this “negative legacy” from the previous administration, headed by Shinzo Abe, and start considering a new missile defense program from scratch.

Suga’s Cabinet on Dec. 18 decided to add two vessels equipped with the Aegis missile defense system to the Self-Defense Forces’ catalog of weapons, as a new missile defense program to replace the abandoned Aegis Ashore project…



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