WASHINGTON ― Japan will select Lockheed Martin’s Long Range Discrimination Radar for its two planned Aegis Ashore installations, according to a Reuters report.

The decision was made ahead of a planned August budget request, Reuters reported, citing a Defense Ministry official directly familiar with the decision.

Raytheon’s SPY-6 radar was the other competitor, Reuters said.

Japan has been seeking to bolster its missile defense as North Korea barges ahead with its missile development program, despite a recent easing in tension in the run-up to, and aftermath of, a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.

The US Navy is fed up with ballistic missile defense patrols
The US Navy is fed up with ballistic missile defense patrols

The unusually direct comments from CNO come amid growing frustration among the surface warfare community that the mission is eating up operational availability that could be better used confronting growing high-end threats from China and Russia.

By: David Larter

Notwithstanding the meeting with Trump, North Korea has forged ahead with expanding a facility dedicated to producing solid-fuel rockets, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The U.S. Navy’s top officer has been pushing for more widespread use of Aegis Ashore facilities to free up surface combatants now dedicated to at least six standing ballistic missile defense patrols.

“It’s time to build something on land to defend the land,” Adm. John Richardson said in June. “Whether that’s Aegis Ashore or whatever, I want to get out of the long-term missile defense business and move to dynamic missile defense.”