Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed on a plan Friday to develop a new type of missile capable of intercepting hypersonic weapons when they met near Washington for one-on-one talks.
Kishida and Biden endorsed the joint development plan at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David at a time when China, North Korea and Russia are all aggressively pursuing hypersonic capabilities, according to the White House and the Japanese government.
Hypersonic missiles and glide vehicles fly at speeds of over Mach 5, 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.