As neighboring countries such as China, Russia and North Korea add hypersonic weapons and artificial intelligence-equipped drones to their already vast arsenals, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces face 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 that Japan – as well as US forces in the country – will find themselves on the receiving end of not one, but possibly several saturation attacks that could overwhelm the country. air defense in the event of a military conflict.
