The threats of the Pyongyang regime and the missile tests of last months have put the entire area under alarm. There is intensifying the US-South Korea, India-Japan and many other countries that are, in various respects, threatened. Perhaps it is the prelude to an imminent American attack? Meanwhile Japan in self-defense terrestrial components is intensifying the "real time" training. Simulation and possible scenarios are handled in the smallest details.
The Japanese Self-Defense Forces will conduct ballistic missile interception exercises tomorrow in Hokkaido, the northern island of the country twice flown by North Korean ballistic missiles. The Air Self-Defense Forces will conduct drills at the Emimo Advanced Base, using the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (Pac-3) surface-to-air missile interception system. To date, Japan has 34 Pac-3 batteries on its territory, each capable of defending an area of 80 kilometers in diameter. The Pac-3 which represent the second line of defense against any attacks with ballistic missiles, in case the Aegis systems, embarked on board the Navy's missile cruisers, should fail to intercept the targets. Last August, a North Korean medium-range ballistic missile flew over Cape Erimo, in Hokkaido, before sinking into the waters of the Pacific, approximately 2.700 kilometers from the launch point; a second North Korean missile followed a similar trajectory the following month, but flew 3.700 kilometers.
