U.S. and Japan allocate over $3 billion for developing hypersonic weapons interceptor

The United States and Japan have estimated the total cost of jointly developing a new type of missile capable of intercepting hypersonic weapons will exceed $3 billion, Kyodo reports citing a U.S. Defense Department official.

Of the total, Japan will allocate $1 billion to the Glide Phase Interceptor project, according to the official from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The two countries are aiming to complete the missile's development by the 2030s.

According to the report, the joint development was agreed on by U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in August last year.

The project comes at a time when China, North Korea and Russia have been aggressively pursuing hypersonic capabilities, the report adds.

Hypersonic missiles and glide vehicles fly at speeds of over Mach 5, equivalent to five times the speed of sound. They are also maneuverable and can change course during flight, making them more difficult to shoot down or track by radar.

The new project is aimed at knocking down incoming hypersonic missiles during their most vulnerable glide phase of flight before reentering the atmosphere from space, compared with a conventional defense system that is designed to intercept missiles shortly before reaching their targets, Kyodo adds.