Japan Mulls Equipping Submarines With Long-Range Missiles, Reports Say

TOKYO (Sputnik) - Japan's defense ministry is considering equipping its submarines with long-range missiles as a way to increase their retaliatory strike capability, Japanese media reported on Monday.

Submarines currently in service of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) are low-observable. If equipped with modified Type 12 missiles, they will be able to deliver strikes on enemy bases while staying out of reach of their defense, media reported. Japan is working on modifying the Type 12 anti-ship missiles in a way to increase their range beyond 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) for a retaliatory strike from within a safe zone.

The newspaper added that new missiles would be developed under the so-called stand-off missile program as a replacement for the US ground ballistic missile defense system Aegis Ashore, which Japan stopped using in 2020 due to the risk of upper-stage debris falling on residential areas.

Earlier reports said that these missiles could be deployed on ships and fighter jets, while now Japan's military was also looking into fitting the missiles onto its submarines, Nikkei said. Existing submarines have torpedo and anti-ship systems of horizontal launch. According to the media, new long-range missiles will require additional space and maybe even vertical launch systems. 

The research, started in 2020, does not rule out a possibility of creating an experimental submarine, while the modernized equipment is scheduled to launch as early as in the 2030s, Nikkei said. Ground deployment of longer-range Type 12 missiles will start in 2026, while ships and fighter jets are scheduled to be equipped with the new weapon starting 2026 and 2027.

Japan is also looking into acquiring US-made Tomahawk cruise missiles as well as designing its own hypersonic rockets, the newspaper said. The government reportedly believes that it will need 1,000 long-range missiles to effectively deter China and North Korea.