Japan is urgently upgrading its missile defense system.

(Baonghean.vn) - Sources from the Japanese government on October 17th indicated that the country may allocate an additional approximately $1 billion USD to defense spending to upgrade its ballistic missile defense system following a series of recent missile and nuclear tests by North Korea.

The PAC-3 Patriot missile defense system is being deployed in Japan. Photo: Reuters.

According to the Japanese government, this expenditure is expected to be submitted in the fiscal year 2017 budget plan, beginning in April 2017, and will primarily be allocated to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system and the Aegis Ashore surface-to-air missile system installed on warships in the Sea of ​​Japan.

In addition, this budget will also be used to improve the range and accuracy of the PAC-3 Patriot defense system.

However, sources from the Japanese government also noted that the deployment of the THAAD or Aegis Ashore system could take many years. Furthermore, upgrading the PAC-3 Patriot system cannot be done in a short time because the companies directly involved – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Raytheon Corporation – are already operating at maximum capacity.

Earlier that day, the Sankei newspaper reported that the Japanese Ministry of Defense had requested approximately 300 billion yen (equivalent to $2.9 billion) in the third supplementary budget. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has yet to indicate whether this supplementary budget will be approved by Parliament.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense has not yet issued any comment regarding the incident.

Thanh Hien

(According to Reuters)