When North Korea launched its latest Hwasong-12 missile over Japan a fortnight ago, the Japanese Self-Defence Force could have tried to shoot it down.
That would have meant using one or more of its four naval destroyers, which are equipped with the cutting-edge US Aegis system that tracks enemy missiles and guides interceptor missiles to take out the threat.
The destroyer's vertical tubes would have launched an SM-3 interceptor missile that, all going well, would meet the Hwasong-12 somewhere around the edge of the atmosphere in a violent collision.
But Japan didn't. The official reason was its radar network quickly established that the North Korean missile was going to pass harmlessly over Hokkaido and fall into the Pacific.....
Too much here to copy and paste, more at Syndney Morning Herald...
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...games-of-missile-defence-20170908-gye14n.html
That would have meant using one or more of its four naval destroyers, which are equipped with the cutting-edge US Aegis system that tracks enemy missiles and guides interceptor missiles to take out the threat.
The destroyer's vertical tubes would have launched an SM-3 interceptor missile that, all going well, would meet the Hwasong-12 somewhere around the edge of the atmosphere in a violent collision.
But Japan didn't. The official reason was its radar network quickly established that the North Korean missile was going to pass harmlessly over Hokkaido and fall into the Pacific.....
Too much here to copy and paste, more at Syndney Morning Herald...
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...games-of-missile-defence-20170908-gye14n.html
