An advanced U.S. destroyer equipped with cutting-edge ballistic missile defense technology arrived at its new home port at the Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Tuesday, as the U.S. Navy's Japan-based 7th Fleet looks to bounce back from two deadly accidents less than a year ago while also contending with nuclear-armed North Korea.
The USS Milius guided-missile destroyer, while not technically a replacement for the USS Fitzgerald or the USS John S. McCain, both of which were damaged in separate collisions with merchant ships last year, is seen as a welcome addition ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's scheduled meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.
The destroyer is equipped with the Aegis missile defense system that can shoot down ballistic missiles in space, and is part of a bolstered naval force that would be the first line of defense in the event of a return to a security environment that last year saw North Korea lob a pair of intermediate-range ballistic missiles over Japan and test a long-range weapon. Experts say that long-range missile demonstrated the North is capable of striking most, if not all, of the continental United States.