As Defense Industry Daily discussed in January, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces are continuing their path to acquiring full BMD capability for their AEGIS vessels. The JDS Kongo successfully performed an intercept using an SM-3 Block 1A in December of '07, and it looks like the JDS Chokai will be following suit with a more difficult intercept test.
As Galrahn noted earlier, this indicates that the U.S. and Japanese naval forces are increasing their BMD capabilities in lockstep, which would allow them to operate as part of an integrated BMD system and allow the Japanese vessels to set up their own defense umbrella. Whether or not the JMSDF will allow them to be deployed to operations areas outside the Japanese home waters, their availability will free up US Pacific Fleet assets for BMD operations elsewhere if we see continued joint BMD exercises (or even better, a JMSDF-only exercise defending a local target).
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