-Caveat Lector-
> Paris, Saturday, August 7, 1999
>
>
> U.S. Plans New Missile In Project With Japan
>
> Joint Design Effort Awaits Final Approval On Details of System
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ------- By Don Kirk International Herald Tribune
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ------- TOKYO - Japan and the United States expect to reach a
> formal agreement next week on research toward developing a
> ballistic missile as part of a defense system that military
> analysts here say may ultimately lead to a joint U.S.-Japan
> military command.
>
> Japanese defense officials said Friday that the U.S. Defense
> Department and the Japan Defense Agency had worked out specific
> terms of a memorandum under which researchers would collaborate
> on four basic aspects of the missile's design, including nose
> cone, warhead, infrared seeker and rocket motor.
>
> U.S. officials confirmed that in a few days the State Department
> and the Japanese Foreign Ministry would exchange notes that will
> set out a general framework within which military leaders in both
> countries will agree on how to carry out the project over the
> next five to six years.
>
> ''The exchange of notes gives the authority to sign the
> memorandum of understanding,'' said Kohei Masuda, director of
> defense policy for the Japan Defense Agency. ''The memorandum
> describes details of the work itself.''
>
> Mr. Masuda said his office already had copies of the memorandum,
> under which ''the Japanese and American sides will jointly
> design'' a missile equipped with a so-called kinetic warhead
> capable of shattering an enemy missile without exploding.
> Japanese officials said the memorandum would specify which
> country had primary responsibility for each component.
>
> Japanese and American officials discussed final details of the
> exchange of diplomatic notes - and the accompanying memorandum -
> amid rising tensions over North Korea's apparent intention to
> test-fire an advanced version of the Taepodong missile that it
> launched over Japan nearly a year ago.
>
> Military analysts, some of them retired senior Japanese military
> officers, talked frankly of the possibilities of an arrangement
> that many Japanese still regard as almost taboo: the formation of
> a joint command, possibly led by an American general.
>
> They saw the rise of such a command as a consequence of close
> collaboration between the United States and Japan on
> ballistic-missile defense and the need for a single commander to
> be able to make immediate combat decisions free of political
> constraints.
>
> ''If there's ballistic-missile defense, we have to have a joint
> command,'' said Masashi Nishihara, professor at the National
> Defense Academy, which educates officers for the Japanese Army,
> Navy and Air Force. He acknowledged that this remained a
> sensitive issue among the Japanese, who are still governed by a
> ''peace constitution'' that forbids sending forces overseas,
>
> U.S.-Japanese collaboration on ballistic-missile defense would be
> another step toward converting Japan's military establishment
> into a major fighting force.
>
> Japan's armed forces, the Self-Defense Forces, with 241,000
> troops, are regarded as well-equipped with conventional weapons
> even though their budget is limited to 1 percent of the gross
> national product, which last year totaled nearly $5 trillion
>
> The U.S.-Japanese dialogue has accelerated in recent weeks as
> intelligence reports have indicated that North Korea has already
> built the Taepodong-2 missile, with a range of 5,950 kilometers
> (3,700 miles), more than twice that of the Taepodong-1.
>
> Japan has been eager both to develop its own ballistic-missile
> defense system and to launch an intelligence satellite to
> compensate for what it sees as the failure of the United States
> to warn them about the Taepodong-1.
>
> At the same time, Japanese officials still believe they need to
> work closely with Washington.
>
> ''Japan's future rests on the U.S.-Japan alliance,'' said
> Hisahiko Okazaki, a former diplomat who has also served as
> director of defense intelligence.
>
> Military analysts see new guidelines for U.S.-Japan defense
> cooperation as providing the basis not only for a more forceful
> military policy but also for a joint command. The guidelines,
> approved last spring by the Japanese Parliament, authorize a
> ''mechanism'' for officers from the two countries to coordinate
> ''respective activities during contingencies.''
>
> Mr. Masuda said he believed the mechanism would consist initially
> of an umbrella committee with several subcommittees and perhaps a
> coordination center staffed by U.S. and Japanese colonels, aided
> by liaison officers from both sides.
>
> Defense analysts said the coordination center could turn into a
> joint command if war broke out in the region.
>
> ''I hope we will have that kind of headquarters,'' said Shigeto
> Nagano, a retired general who once commanded the army. ''Studies
> should begin on this idea.''
>
> Mr. Nagano, president of the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies,
> said he did not believe opposition to such a joint command, even
> one under a U.S. general, would be as severe as many officials
> have said. ''Most of the Japanese people would not be against
> it,'' he said.
>
> Other military analysts said, however, that a unified command
> would face not only Japan's constitutional constraints but also
> deep-seated concern about anything suggesting foreign control.
>
> ''It's a very, very difficult issue,'' said Toshiyuki Shikata, a
> retired lieutenant general. ''I think a coordination center will
> be enough for us. Japanese people will not like to work under
> American command. We will continue in a parallel way - not under
> a joint command.''
>
> A policy paper issued in May by the Atlantic Council in
> Washington and the Research Institute for Peace and Security in
> Tokyo called for a ''combined defense secretariat'' as a device
> that would ''enable military coordination required under the new
> guidelines.''
>
> Such a secretariat, said the paper, ''would provide a structure
> for combined military decision-making, particularly in emergency
> situations.''
>
> Mr. Masuda, at the Japan Defense Agency, said the United States
> and Japan would have to revise the security treaty under which
> the United States keeps 47,000 troops in the country in order to
> authorize a joint or unified command.
>
> ''It is legally impossible at the moment,'' he said.
from Int'l Herald Tribune
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