A Japanese warship is on the way to the United States to be fitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles, the latest move by Washington and its Asian allies to beef up firepower as adversaries like China and North Korea expand theirs.
The JS Chokai, an Aegis-equipped guided-missile destroyer, is steaming to the US for a year-long deployment during which the ship will undergo modifications – and crew training – to enable it to launch the Tomahawks, maneuverable cruise missiles with a range of about 1,000 miles.
That would put targets deep inside China or North Korea well within range of the Japanese warship.
Japan in early 2024 signed a deal with the US to acquire 400 Tomahawks as part of Tokyo’s plans to increase defense spending to counter regional threats in what Defense Minister Gen Nakatani has called the “most severe and complex security environment” since World War II.
China’s military activities present “the greatest strategic challenge” to Japan, the Defense Ministry’s annual white paper, released in July, said.
A Tomahawk cruise missile conducts a controlled flight test over off Southern California in this file photo. – US Navy/AFP/Getty Images
Beijing is “rapidly enhancing its military capability” while “intensifying” activities around the region, Nakatani said in introducing that white paper, specifically mentioning the Senkaku Islands, a chain in the East China Sea that Tokyo controls but which is also claimed by Beijing, which calls them the Diaoyus.
China showed off some of that new capability – including powerful anti-ship missiles, during a military parade in Beijing on September 3.
On the viewing stand with Chinese leader Xi Jinping that day was Kim Jong Un, who days later was inspecting new North Korean missile engines, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who recently signed a defense treaty with Kim.
In announcing the dispatch of the destroyer to the US, the Defense Ministry said Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are “strengthening their stand-off defense capabilities in order to intercept and eliminate invading forces against Japan at a rapid pace and at long range.”
Though Tokyo cites the Tomahawk’s “defense capabilities,” the missiles are regarded as offensive weapons.
In fact, a US Navy fact sheet on the missiles says they are “used for deep land-attack warfare” and the full name of the weapon is the “Tomahawk Land Attack Missile,” or TLAM.
When Japan asked to buy the Tomahawks in 2023, China bristled at the move, calling out Tokyo for breaching its post-World War II “pacifist constitution,” which restricted the Japanese military – the Japan Self-Defense Forces – to a strictly defensive role.
“The moves by the US and Japan exacerbate the momentum of an arms race, affect peace and stability in the region, seriously disrupt global strategic balance and stability and undermine the international order,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at the time.
Tomahawks are one of the most proven weapons in the US arsenal.
According to manufacturer Raytheon, the cruise missiles “can strike targets precisely from 1,000 miles away, even in heavily defended airspace.”
Besides naval surface ships, the Tomahawks can also be fired from submarines and land platforms.
They’ve been used in combat well over 2,000 times, according to Raytheon, including in June when submarine-launched Tomahawks were used in the US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.
In a statement, the Japanese Defense Ministry said it planned to have the Chokai ready for “actual missions” by next summer through a process that would include live-fire testing.
First steps in that process occurred last week, when the Chokai practiced loading dummy Tomahawk munitions into its vertical launch cells.
The 528-foot-long, 9,500-ton Chokai has 90 of the vertical launch cells, which it can also use to launch surface-to-air missiles, anti-ballistic missiles, air defense missiles and anti-submarine rockets.
It’s similar in size and armament to the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
Beside the US Navy, Britain’s Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy have demonstrated Tomahawk launch capability.
Australia joined that group last December, with the successful firing of a Tomahawk by the destroyer HMAS Brisbane off the US West Coast.
Canberra plans to buy 200 Tomahawks, which the Australian Defense Ministry said will allow its naval vessels to “perform long-range precision strike against land targets.”
CNN’s Simone McCarthy contributed to this report.
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