Posted on 04/15/2018 8:31:43 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Japan was given a preview of the stealthy JASSM-ER “standoff” missiles that it is considering purchasing after U.S. officials said air force B-1B strategic bombers launched the weapons Friday for the first time in combat during strikes on the Syrian regime.
The new Lockheed Martin Corp. air-launched cruise missile made its battlefield debut in the strikes, when 19 of the missiles were fired outside Syrian airspace by two B-1Bs that had targeted the Barzah Research and Development Center located on the outskirts of Damascus.
The firing of the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSMs), was first reported by The Drive, a military and aviation website. U.S. officials later confirmed the launches of the extended version of the weapon, which joined 57 Tomahawk missiles that Pentagon officials also said targeted the site.
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said in December that the ministry had sought to allocate funds to study the feasibility of arming Air Self-Defense Force F-15J fighters with the JASSM-ER, the extended version of the weapon, which is capable of striking North Korea.
The long-range, radar-evading cruise missile has a range of about 1,000 km (620 miles) and is “designed to destroy hostile air defenses and high value, well defended, fixed and relocatable targets while keeping aircraft safely out of range from hostile air defense systems,” according to Lockheed Martin.
Onodera did not mention North Korea or China in his December announcement, and stressed that Japan will leave strike capability to its defense ally, the United States, but some lawmakers have called for a more robust ability to deter and defend Japan and its interests. Having the missile in its arsenal, as well as the JSM (Joint Strike Missile) by Norway’s Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace, with a range of about 500 km, will make it theoretically possible for Japan to strike military bases or nuclear sites in North Korea and to defend its maritime interests near the contested Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. China also claims the Japanese-administered Senkakus, and calls them the Diaoyus.
Onodera said in December that the JSM will be mounted on Air Self-Defense Force F-35 stealth fighters.
Japan, however, is still bound by its pacifist Constitution, which renounces the right to wage war, while its missile forces are currently limited to anti-aircraft and anti-ship munitions with maximum ranges of just 300 km.
The JASSM-ER was approved for combat use in the United States in February, but faced development problems early on, including several failed tests.
Corey Wallace, a postdoctoral fellow in the Graduate School of East Asian Studies at Freie Universitat in Berlin, said that given those problems, it made sense “on the surface that the Pentagon would want to demonstrate the JASSM-ER’s effectiveness to domestic and foreign audiences.”
But he said the demonstration may not play out quite this way in the Japanese context.
“The Japanese government’s justification at this point in time for acquiring the JASSM-ER to be fitted to Japan’s F-15Js is for bolstering its ability to defend its maritime periphery,” Wallace said.
Wallace said that given current limitations on Japanese missiles, ASDF pilots will increasingly be at a disadvantage and in greater danger in maritime air engagements, namely those with China, as the Asian rival develops its own air capabilities and standoff weapons.
Still, said Wallace, “the Syria attack demonstrates one other capability the JASSM-ER brings to the table other than its 1,000 km range — the ability for the highly survivable and stealthy standoff missile to accurately attack land targets from aerial platforms.”
Wallace noted that while Tokyo’s current policy is not for Japan to use any of its capabilities to strike targets inside the territory of other nations, that could change in the future.
Whether Japan should possess the ability to strike enemy bases is expected to become one of the major points of debate on the nation’s security this year, when Japan’s National Defense Program Guidelines and Medium Term Defense Program are set to be revised.
Media reports have said the ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to propose developing the ability to strike enemy bases as a point for debate in relation to revising the guidelines.
It’s clear that when the standoff missiles are expected to be operational in 2023, Tokyo could “field capabilities allowing it to strike DPRK (North Korean) land targets in some kind of autonomous capacity if Japan were desperate and the U.S. was unwilling to defend Japan,” Wallace said.
They worked. That’s what is important. Your taxpayers dollars at work to.
More “BANG” for the buck and less terrorists to worry about.
Sounds like a plan to me.
They’ll make it better for half price.
Bkmk Damascus
Inside the factory where the missiles are made (video at link)
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/04/14/inside-factory-tomahawk-missiles-tuchman-dnt-ac.cnn
More information:
The Drive, a military and aviation website
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Actually ‘The Drive’ is focused on vehicles, not mil items. The confusion arises because Tyler Rogoway moved from his old site, Foxtrot Alpha, to a partition on the Drive site called ‘The War Zone’. Both site use the same software but are totally different in content.
The War Zone covers not only various types of cutting edge military equipment used by the world’s military, but of evolving military actions and tactics. Most of the commenters are either military active/retired or work for contractors like ‘Lockmart’.
Tyler has lots of images and stories as well as video of the SR-71 and its history, in case anyone here is interested. Searching the site for particular subjects is not so easy, but each article includes related content section after the article and before the comments.
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