Japan to introduce Supersonic Anti-Ship Missile ASM-3 next fiscal year....

Thanks to Alert 5 for the link!

via Yomiuri Online.

　From next year, the government has decided to introduce the new type of air-to-ship missile under development to the Air Self Defense Force's F 2 fighter aircraft.

The procurement cost of several hundred million yen is posted in the estimate request for FY 2018, and the mass production system is entered. It is the first supersonic speed as a domestic air-to-ship missile, which is characterized by being difficult to intercept. There is an aim to check the Chinese Navy where the aggressive activities are prominent in the East China Sea.

　The domestically produced air-to-ship missile that has already been introduced has "80 type" and "93 type" close to the sound speed, but the new model has a dramatically faster speed of about 3 times the flight speed of 93 type than the 93 type . In terms of speed, we line up with the most advanced missiles of the same kind abroad.

　The time to hit the target is greatly shortened, and the enemy ships are less likely to intercept the missiles because they can fly at low altitude near the sea surface that can not be caught by the radar. It is said that the range will be longer than 93 types (hundreds of kilometers).

Story here, and you will need a translator. 

Interesting isn't it.  Unless we get on our horse with a quickness we will need to start importing major weapon systems from our allies.

Not because we want to be nice but because we let develop lag so much that they're now ahead and we need quick replacements now.

What do I mean?  How about anti-air systems.  If we're smart we'll probably have to buy Meteors from the Brits.  What about anti-ship missiles?  If we go supersonic we're buying the ASM-3 from Japan and if internal carry is important then we're buying the Norwegian solution.

How did we get to a point where we have to buy weapons from people that can't last more than 10 days during a relatively low scale affair in Libya without begging us for more bombs?  Our procurement priorities have been jacked up.