Tomahawk delays hit Japan’s US missile acquisition schedule
Japan’s Tomahawk procurement faces a setback after Pete Hegseth told Shinjiro Koizumi of delays of up to two years linked to US operations against Iran.
- Japan's acquisition of up to 400 US Tomahawk missiles, originally scheduled for delivery between 2025 and 2027, is facing a significant delay.
- The US has warned that the delivery schedule could be pushed back by as much as two years.
- The delay is attributed to the US military's heavy use of its Tomahawk missile stockpile during recent military operations against Iran.
Japan’s plan to strengthen its stand-off defence capability has faced a setback, with the Financial Times reporting on Saturday (May 23) that deliveries of US-made Tomahawk cruise missiles may be delayed.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth informed Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi of the expected delay during a telephone call earlier this month, the report said.
Tokyo has already signed an agreement with Washington to buy as many as 400 Tomahawk missiles, with deliveries scheduled between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2027.
“Washington had warned that the delays could add as much as two years to the current delivery schedule,” the British newspaper reported in its online edition, citing one person familiar with the situation.
The report said the US military had used a large number of missiles in its military operation against Iran.
An April assessment by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a US think tank, estimated that US forces fired more than 1,000 Tomahawks in Iran, equal to about 30 per cent of a stockpile of roughly 3,100 missiles.
Tomahawk missiles can strike targets at a maximum range of about 1,600 kilometres. Japan sees them as a key element of its effort to improve stand-off defence capabilities, allowing it to respond to adversaries while remaining outside their firing range.
In March, Koizumi said deliveries of Tomahawks to Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force had begun.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
