US and Japan to establish missile production facility

The US and Japan have agreed to establish a Japanese facility for the joint production of advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said late on Wednesday.

Koizumi made the announcement in a news conference in the Philippine central province of Cebu, where he met with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the sidelines of an annual meeting of ASEAN defense chiefs, and their major Asian and Western counterparts.

The missiles that are to be produced as part of a joint effort called “Operation Supercharge” are “essential for the F-35,” Koizumi said, without elaborating or providing other details of the agreement.

Japanese Minister of Defence Shinjiro Koizumi attends an ASEAN meeting in Cebu, Philippines, yesterday.

Photo: AFP

The US-made F-35 jets are one of the world’s most advanced aircraft and are also used by the Japanese military.

During his brief meeting with Hegseth in Cebu, Koizumi said he “shared a sense of crisis ... regarding the increasingly severe regional situation and we agreed to strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-US alliance with greater speed and intensity than ever before.”

“We reaffirmed the importance of a free and open international order based on the rule of law, which rejects any attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo through the use of force, coercion or other means,” he said.

Their discussions were not directed at any specific country, he said.

Hegseth said in a separate meeting with ASEAN defense ministers that the US is committed to help deter aggression in the region.

“The approach we’re taking, we describe as strong, quiet and clear,” Hegseth told the ASEAN defense chiefs. “Strong enough to deter coercion and aggression, quiet enough to avoid needless escalation or public theatrics to let our actions speak for themselves.”