The Japanese Government is reportedly planning to build two more Aegis destroyers, integrated with the advanced missile defence systems, from 2016, with an anticipated completion date of 2020.
The latest plans, which come in light of North Korea’s progress in missile development, would increase the number of Aegis-equipped vessels from six to eight, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
To be built with a $1.47bn investment, it would take five years for the construction of one destroyer, the news agency noted.
Japan has already rolled out its plan to launch two more Aegis-equipped destroyers within 10 years in the national defence programme guidelines, approved by the cabinet in 2013.
Japan Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said: "While the deployment of missiles in readiness for battle proceeds (in North Korea), the country is carrying out exercises to further improve the capability (of its missile system)."
Of the six Aegis-equipped destroyers in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, four are Kongo-type destroyers integrated with the missile defence system.
The high-performance phased array Aegis radar system integrates an advanced command and control system and weapons control system (WCS), which are integrated with powerful computers to search, detect and track over 200 targets such as aircraft, missiles, destroyers and submarines concurrently.
As part of the efforts to offset North Korean provocations, the US Department of Defense (DoD) has agreed to send two more ballistic-missile defence destroyers to Japan by 2017, bringing the overall number of US destroyers in Japan to seven.
