Japanese Government Considers Launching a Satellite Interceptor

Japan’s government is eyeing the launch of a satellite interceptor as a means to counter attack satellites under development in China and Russia. A formal decision is expected by the end of the next fiscal year – which would be March 31, 2021 – in order to conduct a launch in the mid-2020s.

Japanese leadership worries that a so-called killer satellite would be used to disrupt and disable its own satellite networks. China has been rumored to have developed such a prototype, a model equipped with an aim-able robot arm. Back in July 2014 it conducted a successful anti-satellite (ASAT) test. Russia, meanwhile, is believed to have launched multiple anti-satellite systems since 2013.

China and Russia each occupy Japan’s strategic periphery and both retain territorial disputes with Tokyo. Japan is strategically aligned with the U.S. and, along with other nations in the Indo-Pacific region, shares Washington’s national security concerns over inter-state strategic competition.

Thus space occupies the multi-domain areas of concern for Tokyo. Under Japan’s latest National Defense Guidelines (2019) and Medium-Term Defense Program (2019-2023), space forms a crucial aspect of the country’s strategic thinking. The latter document calls for the Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) to stand up an Air Self-Defense Force squadron specifically for space. This squadron will be charged with constant monitoring of the space environment, with domain superiority through all phases from peacetime to armed conflict its charge.

For the current fiscal year, the Japanese Defense Ministry is conducting research on ways to disable satellites via technological avenues such as robotic arms, electromagnetic waves, and cyberattack. The findings from this research, plus other considerations, will be used to formulate a government decision by the end of 2020 as to which avenue to pursue going forward.

 

About Daniel Darling

Dan Darling is Forecast International’s International Military Markets Group Leader. Specializing in history and political science with a background in finance and economics, Dan provides insight into the military markets of both the Europe and the Asia, Australia and Pacific Rim regions. Dan's work has been cited in Aerospace and Defense News, Aerotech News and Review, Defense Talk, Global Defense Review, and Small Wars Journal, among others, and by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. In addition, Dan has been quoted in Arabian Business, the Financial Times, Flight International, The National, Bloomberg and National Defense Magazine. He has also contributed commentary to Defense News and appeared as a guest on the online radio show Midrats and on The Media Line. As editor of International Military Markets, Europe and International Military Markets, Asia, Australia & Pacific Rim, Dan brings a wealth of expertise on the political and economic forces shaping these markets.

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