WASHINGTON ― Japan will select Lockheed Martin’s Long Range Discrimination Radar for its two planned Aegis Ashore installations, according to a Reuters report.
The decision was made ahead of a planned August budget request, Reuters reported, citing a Defense Ministry official directly familiar with the decision.
Raytheon’s SPY-6 radar was the other competitor, Reuters said.
Japan has been seeking to bolster its missile defense as North Korea barges ahead with its missile development program, despite a recent easing in tension in the run-up to, and aftermath of, a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.
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Notwithstanding the meeting with Trump, North Korea has forged ahead with expanding a facility dedicated to producing solid-fuel rockets, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
The U.S. Navy’s top officer has been pushing for more widespread use of Aegis Ashore facilities to free up surface combatants now dedicated to at least six standing ballistic missile defense patrols.
“It’s time to build something on land to defend the land,” Adm. John Richardson said in June. “Whether that’s Aegis Ashore or whatever, I want to get out of the long-term missile defense business and move to dynamic missile defense.”
David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.
