Japan’s next-gen missile crafted to crack China’s Pacific push

Japan is quietly rolling out a new generation of modular, long-range missiles that threaten to turn the Miyako Strait – one of the few international waterways that allows China’s navy to access the Pacific Ocean from the East China Sea – into a lethal no-go zone.

This month, Defense Blog reported that Japan’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) unveiled a prototype for a modular long‑range anti‑ship missile aimed at strengthening Japan’s island defense.The weapon’s compact, low‑observable airframe is powered by an XKJ301‑1 turbojet and designed to validate propulsion, guidance and seeker integration for naval target engagement at extended ranges across Japan’s remote islands and surrounding waters.

Development posters show an open‑architecture design with internal modular bays and interchangeable payloads—dual and infrared (IR) seekers, jammer/decoy units, electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors and high‑power warheads—enabling anti‑ship, decoy, reconnaissance and strike variants.

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