The Patriot advanced PAC-3 missiles – designed for cruise missile and terminal ballistic missile defense – arrived in Japan a year ago, but they’re still not rated fully mission capable because of bureaucratic snarls. The problem is that the radios used to link all the scattered firing units into a single defensive system use frequencies assigned to the Japanese cell phone industry.

“A missile defense system [isn’t] going to have a lot of forewarning,” says a U.S. officials involved in the effort. “Timing is of the essence. We’ve got to find new radios, new frequency bands or new agreements [on frequency assignments]. However, the Japanese response has been slow because the “demand for [commercial] frequencies is huge in this part of the world,” he says. “In the U.S. [the Patriot radios] don’t interfere. Here they do and that’s a big problem.” There will be more information about defending Japan in a special report in Aviation Week & Space Technology on Sept. 3.

Meanwhile, Japan will conduct its first test launch of the U.S.-developed SM-3 interceptor before the end of the year at the Barking Sands Pacific Missile Test Range in Hawaii. The advanced missile, carried by Aegis-equipped destroyers and cruisers, is designed to destroy warheads at higher altitudes and greater ranges, and has been in development and testing for more than five years. The missile is to equip upgraded Kongo-class destroyers, a modification effort that has been spurred by the July 4th 2006 salvo of ballistic missile test by North Korea and the fielding of 4.5 generation strike aircraft by China and new aircraft- and ship-launched cruise missiles.

Both the Pac-3 and SM-3 missiles are to be part of a combined, shared, real-time ballistic and cruise missile defense system being developed by the U.S. and Japan. The missile systems also will be compatible with those being fielded by South Korea and Australia.

Photo: Boeing