Japan’s new cruise missile will be fitted with reconnaissance and EW payloads

The new long-range cruise missile that Japan is developing will be able to carry reconnaissance and electronic jamming payloads, besides explosive ones.

JASDF F-2 fighter firing an ASM-3
防衛装備庁, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons


The idea is to have interchangeable payloads for different mission profiles. A missile with an optical reconnaissance payload will be launched first to gather precise information about the target. This will be followed by another missile which will carry out electronic jamming to defeat the enemy vessel’s defenses before a third missile with an explosive warhead strikes the target.

Yomiuri says in the news report that the production of prototype payloads will begin in the new fiscal year.

Besides Japan, Britain’s MBDA is also developing an electronic attack missile using the proven SPEAR airframe. Using a next-generation miniaturized Electronic Warfare payload, the SPEAR-EW has both stand-in jammer and decoy capabilities. The program is being conducted under a Technical Demonstration Programme contract awarded by the British Ministry of Defense’s Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) department.

DSC01245xy-SPEAREW
Bumper12, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

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