Japan tests domestic anti-ship missile for first time

The test of the Type 88 short-range surface-to-ship missile was conducted on Tuesday at the Shizunai Air Defense Shooting Range on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido.

About 300 soldiers took part in Tuesday's drill by the Ground Self-Defense Force's 1st Artillery Brigade, using training missiles to target an unmanned boat about 40 kilometers (24 miles) off the southern coast of Hokkaido, officials said. The GSDF said officials were still reviewing the test results.

Type 88 surface-to-ship missiles (SSM-1) deployed during a historic live-fire exercise on the Kuril Islands. Photo: GSDF

Due to space constraints and safety concerns, Japan has previously conducted missile tests on the territory of the United States - a treaty ally - and Australia, a top defense partner of Japan, which has a large training ground.

The first domestically-built missile test on Tuesday underscores Japan’s push toward a more self-reliant military and its acquisition of a second-strike capability as a deterrent to China’s increasingly assertive naval activity in regional waters.

Japan is also concerned about the increasing joint military exercises around the coast of Japan between China and Russia. Japan and Russia, Hokkaido's northern neighbor, have a territorial dispute.

Under its pacifist constitution, Japan has limited the use of force to self-defense only, but made a major breakthrough in that policy in 2022 when it adopted an ongoing five-year security strategy that singled out China as its biggest strategic challenge and called for a closer alliance between Japan and the United States.

Type 88 (SSM-1) missile fired for the first time inside Japan. Photo: GSDF

Japan is now working to deploy long-range cruise missiles, including Tomahawk missiles purchased from the United States, starting later this year.

The Type 88 surface-to-ship missile (SSM-1), a truck-mounted coastal defense system developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and first introduced into service in the late 1980s.

The Type 88 missile system is equipped with a solid-fuel rocket and a ramjet-powered cruise missile capable of engaging targets at a range of approximately 180 km. Using inertial guidance for midcourse navigation and active radar guidance for terminal targeting, the Type 88 is designed to attack enemy ships with high precision, making it a core component of Japan's shore-based anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy.

The system is mounted on an 8x8 wheeled transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) and is typically deployed in complexes of four launchers, each armed with multiple missiles, supported by a command vehicle, radar and reloading vehicle.

A missile launch site is being built on the uninhabited island of Minamitorishima, the country's easternmost island in the western Pacific , an area where two Chinese aircraft carriers were seen operating together for the first time earlier this month.