Australia mulls missile plan - report

The Australian ^ | May 22, 2007

[Dundee]

AUSTRALIA plans to join the US and Japan in researching a missile defence system to combat threats in Asia, a Japanese newspaper said today.

Tokyo and Washington started working on the plan in earnest after communist North Korea lobbed a long-range missile over Japan's main island in 1998.

Foreign and Defence ministries officials of the three countries agreed on a joint research framework at a meeting last month in Tokyo, the Nikkei business daily said without identifying its sources.

As a first step, the three countries would hold a meeting by December in which Australia would look at the ongoing work, it said...

While Australia had yet to decide whether to fully implement the system, it would share data and provide operational support, it said.

Japanese officials would not confirm the report...

The system envisions a missile attack by North Korea, which test-fired a string of missiles in July and carried out its first ever nuclear test in October.

Australia previously agreed in December 2003 to join the US in developing its worldwide missile defence system, the so-called "Son of Star Wars."...

In March, Tokyo signed a security pact with Australia, its first such deal other than its alliance with the United States.

The conservative prime ministers of Australia and Japan both denied that the pact was aimed at encircling a rising China.

[Yo-Yo]

With the selection of the F/A-18F as an interim replacement for the F-111C/G, a missile defense system is the only thing that has the range required to defend Australia.