Japan planning to equip F-2 fighters with supersonic air-to-ship missile, says report
Tokyo plans to start equipping Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) F-2 fighter aircraft with a new supersonic air-to-ship missile from the next fiscal year, according to a 19 July report by
The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
The paper quoted unnamed sources as saying that the Japanese government will allocate several hundred million yen in a budgetary request for fiscal year 2018/19 to mass produce the missile, which is still under development.
According to the media report, the new missile will travel significantly faster than domestically built radar-guided Type 80 (ASM-1) and Type 93 (ASM-2) anti-ship missiles, thus making it more difficult for enemy ships to intercept it.