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Whichever route Japan chooses to bolster its defenses against the emerging threat of hypersonic weapons, it appears that for now at least, potential aggressors with these types of weapons already in their arsenal hold an advantage.
While the basic concept of hypersonic weapons is not new, advancements in technology mean that boost-glide vehicles capable of flying at Mach 5 or higher are now real threats, although their deployment has so far been quite sufficient. limit. Air-breathing hypersonic missiles are potentially even more difficult to defeat, as their initial launch is even more difficult to detect, without a large telltale ballistic missile launch plume that could potentially be spotted by space surveillance means.
At the same time, Japan is working on its own secret hypersonic weapon development programs, with a renewed emphasis on accelerated glide vehicles. In an effort to deter China, particularly in the East China Sea, Tokyo has been working on a two-pronged approach to deploying such weapons, with reports in the past that an initial system may be ready to be used d ‘by 2026.
However, while it is clearly possible to deploy practical hypersonic weapons for offensive purposes, the ability to develop effective checks and balances is less certain. Unsurprisingly, the speed of these types of weapons has led some analysts to argue that a whole new command and control architecture is needed to defeat them. With this in mind, Japan may well need not only a diverse range of detection systems and means of neutralizing incoming weapons, but also a global C2 network in which these resources can be brought together and the full range of weapons. engagement managed quickly and transparently. manner.
Ultimately, the cost to Japan of setting up such a comprehensive, multi-layered system to detect, then track hypersonic threats, and then defeat them somehow, is likely to run into the tens. billions of dollars. That alone could be a serious hurdle to overcome, but it looks like Tokyo is at least taking the threat seriously.
Time will tell how successful this effort will be and to what extent it will involve drones to aid detection.
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