Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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Japan Is Taking A Two-Step Approach To Fielding Its First Operational Hypersonic Weapons
The Japanese are rushing to develop the weapons amid concerns about increasing Chinese encroachment on their territorial claims.
18 Oct 2018
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ding-its-first-operational-hypersonic-weapons
They've already got an ICBM in waiting:
Epsilon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_(rocket)
Due to a function called "mobile launch control", the rocket needs only eight people at the launch site, compared with 150 people for earlier launches.
Japanese nuclear weapon program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nuclear_weapon_program
De facto nuclear state
While there are currently no known plans in Japan to produce nuclear weapons, it has been argued Japan has the technology, raw materials, and the capital to produce nuclear weapons within one year if necessary, and many analysts consider it a de facto nuclear state for this reason. For this reason Japan is often said to be a "screwdriver's turn" away from possessing nuclear weapons, or to possess a "bomb in the basement".
Japan was reported in 2012 to have 9 tonnes of plutonium in Japan, enough for more than 1,000 nuclear warheads, and an additional 35 tonnes stored in Europe. It has constructed the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, which could produce further plutonium. Japan has a considerable quantity of highly enriched uranium (HEU), supplied by the U.S. and UK, for use in its research reactors and fast neutron reactor research programs; approximately 1,200 to 1,400 kg of HEU as of 2014. Japan also possesses an indigenous uranium enrichment plant which could hypothetically be used to make highly enriched uranium suitable for weapons use.
Japan has also developed the M-V three-stage solid-fuel rocket, somewhat similar in design to the U.S. LGM-118A Peacekeeper ICBM, giving it a missile technology base. It now has an easier-to-launch second generation solid-fuel rocket, Epsilon. Japan has experience in re-entry vehicle technology (OREX, HOPE-X). Toshiyuki Shikata, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government adviser and former lieutenant general, said that part of the rationale for the fifth M-V Hayabusa mission, from 2003 to 2010, was that the re-entry and landing of its return capsule demonstrated "that Japan's ballistic missile capability is credible." In 2011, former Minister of Defense Shigeru Ishiba explicitly backed the idea of Japan maintaining the capability of nuclear latency:
"I don't think Japan needs to possess nuclear weapons, but it's important to maintain our commercial reactors because it would allow us to produce a nuclear warhead in a short amount of time ... It's a tacit nuclear deterrent"
The Japanese are rushing to develop the weapons amid concerns about increasing Chinese encroachment on their territorial claims.
18 Oct 2018
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ding-its-first-operational-hypersonic-weapons
They've already got an ICBM in waiting:
Epsilon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_(rocket)
Due to a function called "mobile launch control", the rocket needs only eight people at the launch site, compared with 150 people for earlier launches.
Japanese nuclear weapon program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nuclear_weapon_program
De facto nuclear state
While there are currently no known plans in Japan to produce nuclear weapons, it has been argued Japan has the technology, raw materials, and the capital to produce nuclear weapons within one year if necessary, and many analysts consider it a de facto nuclear state for this reason. For this reason Japan is often said to be a "screwdriver's turn" away from possessing nuclear weapons, or to possess a "bomb in the basement".
Japan was reported in 2012 to have 9 tonnes of plutonium in Japan, enough for more than 1,000 nuclear warheads, and an additional 35 tonnes stored in Europe. It has constructed the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, which could produce further plutonium. Japan has a considerable quantity of highly enriched uranium (HEU), supplied by the U.S. and UK, for use in its research reactors and fast neutron reactor research programs; approximately 1,200 to 1,400 kg of HEU as of 2014. Japan also possesses an indigenous uranium enrichment plant which could hypothetically be used to make highly enriched uranium suitable for weapons use.
Japan has also developed the M-V three-stage solid-fuel rocket, somewhat similar in design to the U.S. LGM-118A Peacekeeper ICBM, giving it a missile technology base. It now has an easier-to-launch second generation solid-fuel rocket, Epsilon. Japan has experience in re-entry vehicle technology (OREX, HOPE-X). Toshiyuki Shikata, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government adviser and former lieutenant general, said that part of the rationale for the fifth M-V Hayabusa mission, from 2003 to 2010, was that the re-entry and landing of its return capsule demonstrated "that Japan's ballistic missile capability is credible." In 2011, former Minister of Defense Shigeru Ishiba explicitly backed the idea of Japan maintaining the capability of nuclear latency:
"I don't think Japan needs to possess nuclear weapons, but it's important to maintain our commercial reactors because it would allow us to produce a nuclear warhead in a short amount of time ... It's a tacit nuclear deterrent"
