The Missile Defense Agency plans to deploy an advanced missile defense radar, the X-band radar system—to Japan within six months, according to top agency officials speaking at a budget briefing earlier this week. As part of last year’s military realignment agreements, the US and Japan agreed to station an X-band system in the Asian country to increase ballistic missile defenses for both countries. The $130 million radar will be linked with early warning missile defense satellites and the Aegis BMD system as well as Japan’s defense networks. The radar is currently at Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
