USNI News:
The National Defense Authorization Act passed on Friday by the House of Representatives includes measures to improve the capability of U.S. Aegis Ashore missile defense sites and to make it easier to sell the land-based system to allies.
House Armed Services Committee (HASC) strategic forces subcommittee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) offered an amendment to the bill on the House floor that urges the Defense Department to make the Aegis Ashore capability available for sale to Japan, who already owns six Aegis Combat System-equipped Kongo- and Atago-class destroyers.
“It is the sense of Congress that a decision by the Government of Japan to purchase Aegis Ashore for its self-defense, given that it already possesses sea-based Aegis weapons system-equipped naval vessels, could create a significant opportunity for promoting interoperability and integration of air- and missile defense capability with close allies, could provide for force multiplication benefits, and could potentially alleviate force posture requirements on multi-mission assets,” the amendment reads.
The measure was adopted into the defense bill as part of an amendment package agreed to by HASC Republican and Democratic leadership.
The amendment was meant to further the already-strong missile defense relationship between the two countries, a source familiar with the amendment told USNI News. Japan already owns Aegis ships, hosts two U.S. missile defense radars and has worked with the U.S. military to develop the Standard Missile 3 Block IIA interceptor.
Japan has not made a final decision on purchasing Aegis Ashore, but the source said the foreign military sales program has not approved selling Aegis Ashore – even though the shore-based system is less capable than its ship-based counterpart, having only ballistic missile defense capabilities compared to the anti-air warfare and offensive capabilities Aegis ships bring…
