Japan seeks additional 6.4 mln USD budget for land-based Aegis missile systems

TOKYO, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Sunday that his ministry has requested an additional budget of 730 million yen (around 6.4 million U.S. dollars) for fiscal year 2018 to introduce two land-based Aegis missile defense systems.

According to an initial budget request announced in August, the ministry required a total of 5.26 trillion yen (47.8 billion U.S. dollars) for fiscal 2018 starting next April, which, if approved, would mark the sixth annual increase since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe retook office in 2012.

The ministry said then that part of the money would be used to introduce a new missile shield system, possibly the land-based Aegis Ashore, but the amount was unspecified as it still needs to be hammered out with the United States.

Onodera told reporters Sunday that the additional funding was intended to be used for surveying geological features and other expenses for deploying the Aegis missile defense systems.

The ministry is also seeking to include related expenses in the supplementary budget for fiscal 2017 ending next March, he said.

Japan has so far taken steps to counter any potential launches of ballistic missiles by deploying high-tech Aegis advanced radar-equipped destroyers which are tasked with stopping missiles in the outer atmosphere, and ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors which will counter the attack at lower altitudes.

The Aegis Ashore system is a land-based version of the Aegis advanced radar system, and with potential to be permanently installed. It is expected to reduce the workload of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces members in missile intercept operations.

Each Aegis Ashore unit costs around 80 billion yen (around 705 million U.S. dollars), and Japan would need two units to cover the whole landmass, experts said. Enditem