Japan plans to acquire the Tomahawk cruise missiles from fiscal year 2025 to 2027.
Around 25 JMSDF sailors went aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell at Yokosuka Naval Base, homeport of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, in the five-day program that started on March 25 and finished on March 29.
“The Ministry of Defense and the Self-Defense Forces are strengthening its stand-off defense capabilities in order to disrupt and defeat the forces invading Japan early and from far away,” Japan’s Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said at a press conference on March 29.
“As a part of our effort, regarding Tomahawk, the United States Navy has been conducting a training course for JMSDF personnel starting from March 25th. In this course, the U.S. Navy provides expertise required for the operation of Tomahawk missile,” Kihara said, adding that U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel announced the U. S. will continue to conduct such training every other month.
“What does credible deterrence look like? Building Japan’s crucial counterstrike capability with week one of Tomahawk cruise missile training at US Navy Yokosuka. Welcome to a new era in strength, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” Emanuel wrote on X on March 28, along with four photos taken with U.S. Navy members.
The training program is are the first round of JMSDF personnel to learn the basic procedure for launching a Tomahawk using real equipment from U.S. sailors from the Surface Combat Systems Training Command Western Pacific in the McCampbell’s combat information center (CIC), the tactical heart of the vessel.
Inside the McCampbell’s CIC, they participated in a simulated missile strike mission to learn the inner workings of the Tomahawks and their control systems, Stars & Stripes reported on March 28, citing Cmdr. Mike Arnold, the training command officer in charge.
“In a dimly lit CIC illuminated by blue light, an JMSDF member sat in front of a screen, operated equipment and enthusiastically asked questions to American sailors,” Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun newspaper also reported on the training on the same day.
The five-day training followed Japan’s signing of a letter of acceptance (LOA) in January to buy up to 400 Tomahawks from the US to beef up its counterstrike capabilities against enemy missile sites and other targets. This contract was worth about 254 billion yen ($1.7 billion) with the U.S. Government. Asked about the future schedule, Kihara said at the press conference that in addition to the training this time around, based on the LOA concluded in January, the JMSDF will receive training from the U.S. side to train personnel related to more advanced Tomahawk operations in time for the Tomahawk acquisition starting in FY2025.
The Tomahawks will be fitted aboard four classes of JMSDF Aegis-equipped destroyers:
