BMD Focus: Japan's passion for BMD

Posted on: Mar. 24th, 2006 || Source: upi.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

BMD Focus: Japan's passion for BMD

WASHINGTON, March 24 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is due to step down in a few months after five confident, controversial years at the helm of the world's second-ranking industrial power, but he will leave ballistic missile defense juggernaut behind him.

Hardly a week now goes past without some isolated, usually little-remarked upon item that heralds another enormous stride in fulfilling his guiding vision of a gigantic, long-lasting new high-tech partnership with the United States to develop a world class BMD shield for his nation.

On Thursday, U.S. Army secretary Francis J. Harvey discussed progress in BMD cooperation with Japanese officials in Tokyo.

Earlier this month, a senior Boeing executive told a group of Washington reporters who specialize in covering BMD issues that the Japanese government is extremely interested in studying the Missile Defense Agency's controversial Airborne Laser, or ABL anti-ballistic missile system, for which Boeing is the prime contractor. Should such a system become operational in the next few years, it could be of the greatest value in protecting Japan's huge, densely populated cities from nuclear missiles fired from nearby North Korea.

"The Japanese are very interested in ABL," Greg Hyslop, director of the ABL program at Boeing. He said Boeing had already launched a study "to explore where Japanese defense industry might participate."

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