Japan is increasing defenses on the islands near the Senkaku islands.
南西諸島の陸上
自衛隊配備計画
Plans for stationing JGSDF on Nansei Islands.
奄美大島
Amami Oshima: 550 personnel. By 2018.
宮古島
Miyakojima: 700-800 personnel. By 2018.
石垣島
Ishigakishima: 500-600 personnel. By 2019.
These three include civil disturbance unit, anti-ship missile unit, and SAM unit.
与那国島
Yonagunijima: 150 personnel. By the end of 2015. Coastal Surveillance unit.
Japan to develop a new land based anti-ship missile that will have a range of about 300km.
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The Japanese government is developing a new land-to-sea missile to reinforce the defenses of remote Japanese-controlled islets in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports on August 14. The Japan-administered Senkaku Islands are also claimed by both China and Taiwan.
Japan has not revealed many details about the new weapon system except that it will have an approximate range of 300 kilometers (186 miles), use solid fuel, and is slated to be deployed by 2023. Funding for the new missile will be included in the fiscal year 2017 defense budget request and it will solely be developed and produced in Japan.
“The new missile will be mounted on a vehicle, making it easy to transport and change positions. It will have a guidance system using the global positioning system (GPS) or other means, and be capable of striking targets, such as other countries’ warships deployed around remote islands, from nearby islands,” the Yomiuri Shimbun reveals.
The new missile will supplement the Type 12 subsonic anti-ship missile, an upgraded variant of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Type 88 surface-to-ship missile with a reported range of 200 kilometers (124 miles), currently in service with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF). The Type 12 missile is carries by a transporter erector launcher, each carrying six missiles.
According to Yomiuri Shimbun, the new missile system could also be used for reoccupying islands:
The new surface-to-ship missile would also be effective if a remote island is occupied. When GSDF units conduct landing operations, they currently focus on naval gunfire from destroyers with a short firing range or dropping bombs from fighter jets. That involves a high risk of being counterattacked. The new missile would make it possible to assist the GSDF landing units from nearby islands.
The new coastal missile batteries will likely be stationed on Miyako Island in Okinawa prefecture about 170 kilometers (105 miles) from the Senkaku Islands, and Yonaguni Island, part of Okinawa Prefecture in the East China Sea, located 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Taiwan.
In March, the GSDF finished construction of a permanent new radar station on Yonaguni Island. As I reported (See: “New Radar Facility: Japan Expands Military Presence in East China Sea”), the new radar station was deployed to improve Japan’s air and maritime domain awareness around the Nansei (aka Ryukyu) island chain and to provide an early warning system in the event of conflict with China.
Tensions between China and Japan have progressively been rising in the East China Sea this year. This month, six China Coast Guard ships, accompanied by more than two hundred fishing vessels, entered disputed waters around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. China has also installed new radar equipment on a gas platform in the East China Sea in August, according to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both countries have yet to delimit their exclusive economic zones in the disputed waters.
The Japan Air-Self Defense Force (JASDF) had to scramble its fighter jets 571 times during fiscal year 2015 to intercept Chinese military aircraft approaching or intruding Japanese airspace. As a response, for the first time in 50 years, the JASDF has stood up a new air wing consisting of Mitsubishi F-15J all-weather air superiority fighters to fend off Chinese advances—in particular in the East China Sea (See: “Japan Forms New Air Wing to Fend off China’s Advances in East China Sea”).
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http://thediplomat.com/2016/08/dete...ew-anti-ship-missile-for-defense-of-senkakus/
The range area of a 300km range anti-ship missile shown on the image below.
US PACOM commander, Admiral Harry Harris visited Yonaguni island a few days ago.
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The head of the U.S. Pacific Command has visited for the first time a key Ground Self-Defense Force listening post just 150 km (90 miles) south of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Adm. Harry Harris was accompanied by Self-Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Joint Staff, Adm. Katsutoshi Kawano on the visit Wednesday to the radar station on Okinawa’s tiny Yonaguni Island, the Pacific Command and the Japanese Defense Ministry said in statements.
The visit to Yonaguni was also a first for Kawano.
Japan activated the outpost on Yonaguni, the southernmost of the Ryukyu Islands, last year. That move stoked anger in Beijing, which claims the Senkakus and calls them Diaoyu.
The two nations have for decades been embroiled in a heated territorial dispute over the Senkakus, and China’s routine practice of sending government ships and planes near the islands — aimed at probing Japanese reactions — have stoked fears of an accidental clash.
In a speech to a think tank Wednesday, Harris signaled that the U.S. military could continue to conduct so-called freedom of navigation operations in the disputed South China Sea.
“I have believed and advocated for the necessity for the United States, and our friends and allies and partners, by the way, to continue to exercise our rights on international law,” Harris said. “We should be able to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.”
China has moved closer to cementing effective control of the disputed South China Sea in recent years, building in the strategic waterway a series of man-made islands that Harris famously criticized as a “great wall of sand.”
Washington says Beijing has continued to bolster its military capabilities in the waters, through which $5 trillion in trade passes each year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.
Japan, which is not a claimant to the South China Sea, has joined Harris, one of the most vocal opponents of the Chinese land-reclamation projects, in urging China to respect the rule of law.
In his speech Wednesday, Harris also labeled North Korea’s recent military provocations “a recipe for a disaster” and warned against complacency in the face of surging tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
“The dangerous behavior by North Korea is not just a threat to the Korean Peninsula,” Harris said at the event in Tokyo, referring to Pyongyang’s latest test-firing of an advanced new missile Sunday. “It’s a threat to Japan. It’s a threat to China. It’s a threat to Russia.”
On Tuesday, Harris and Kawano also met at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, where they held talks on U.S.-Japan defense cooperation and the tense security situation in the Asia-Pacific region, including the North Korean threat.
Sebastian Maslow, a research fellow at the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies at Kobe University, said Harris’ visit and tour of the Yonaguni outpost highlights the U.S. and Japanese commitment to countering China’s increasingly aggressive moves in the East and South China seas.
“For years Japanese strategists and U.S.-Japan alliance managers have tried to counter China’s increasing presence in the East and South China Seas. This visit confirms that commitment,” Maslow said.
It also conveys a “strong signal to Japan and indeed U.S. partners in the region that despite political instability in the U.S., Washington is committed to security guarantees,” he added.
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...edom-navigation-south-china-sea/#.WSGyLut97cs
