Why Japan's buying 500 Tomahawk missiles

The Tomahawk cruise missiles would enable Japan develop long-range strike capability which is essential as it is located in a rancorous neighbourhood where it has to deal with notorious North Korea and China.

Looking at the things happening around, the Japanese government approved $51 billion for the Defence Ministry in the budget for the current fiscal. This is nearly 30 percent more than what it provisioned for the last year. Now, the country is mulling a plan to buy 500 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US, an indication that it is sincere about the emerging security situations in the South China Sea.

The Tomahawk cruise missiles would enable Japan develop long-range strike capability which is essential as it is located in a rancorous neighbourhood where it has to deal with notorious North Korea and China. To buy 500 of these cruise missiles, the Japanese government has earmarked $1.59 billion. The negotiations are already going on with Washington's Foreign Military Sales and the conclusion is likely soon.

Tomahawk enable the naval forces attack long-range fixed targets without getting detected as these are designed to fly at extremely low altitudes at high subsonic speeds. This feature alone makes them one of the most lethal cruise missiles available on the earth.

To develop counterstrike capabilities

One striking requirement that Japan has put to the US authorities is that it wants to purchase only the advanced versions of Tomahawk which were delivered to the US Navy a couple of years ago. The latest versions are capable of hitting sites that pose an imminent threat and destroy them completely and comprehensively.

Japan aims to deploy Tomahawks on Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels which also come fitted with the Aegis missile defence system. Since Japan is interested in the newer version of Tomahawk missiles that are the Block IV TLAM-E, these come with an enhanced feature that includes a range of 1,600 km.

The advanced version of the missile has a faster launch timeline and carries a 1,000 lb. unitary warhead. The US Navy has used these cruise missiles quite extensively in Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya. Later, these were also fired during 2014 Operation Inherent Resolve in Syria. In all these fronts, Tomahawk cruise missiles have proven their prowess.

For any cruise missile, its successful history tells how impactful it is and for Tomahawk its history is full of great success stories that started from Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The data show that since January 1991 there have been more than 2,000 fires of Tomahawks and most of them left a massive impression.