With neighboring countries such as China, Russia and North Korea adding hypersonic weapons and artificial intelligence-equipped drones to their already massive arsenals, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are facing an increasingly complex set of challenges to keep the country safe.
While Japan is known to have robust air defenses, advances in missile and aircraft technology — such as autonomous drone swarms and ballistic missiles that fly on irregular trajectories at low altitudes — have complicated and diversified the threat.
To make matters worse, the relatively low cost of mass-producing some of these weapons has raised the possibility of Japan — as well as U.S. forces in the country — being on the receiving end of not one, but potentially several saturation attacks that could overwhelm air defenses in the event of a military clash.