"Like the parliament of that country did earlier, Tokyo is consistently
toughening its stance, pointing out the debatable status of the Kuril islands. That may only drive the situation into a deadlock." [19]
It is this intensified policy of Japanese recalcitrance and revisionism that Washington has now squarely endorsed. Although State Department spokesman Philip Crowley qualified his comments of November 1 by saying the Article 5 military component of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan would not be invoked as long as Japan did not administer the Kurils, the door was left open for the activation of the article should Japan succeed, peacefully or otherwise, in gaining possession of the islands and the transition be recognized by Washington.
But the Kuril, as well as the Senkaku/Diaoyu, Spratly and Paracel, islands are minor chess pieces in a far broader stratagem. The U.S. intends to accelerate its return to and domination over the Asia-Pacific region and China and Russia are the main obstacles to its doing so.
The USS Lake Erie guided missile cruiser and USS Russell Arleigh Burke class destroyer, both part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, simultaneously carried out a mock interception of the target missile. USS Lake Erie shot down a space satellite with a Standard Missile-3 133 miles over the Pacific Ocean on February 20, 2008, with USS Russell part of the task force assigned to the mission.
In September the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awarded Raytheon Company, the world's largest missile manufacturer, a $175 million contract to "work with partners in Japan on the cooperative engineering and development efforts for the SM-3 Block IIA missile through the preliminary design process."
"Raytheon and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, under contract to the MDA and Japan's Ministry of Defense, are developing the next-generation SM-3 Block IIA missile, scheduled to begin flight testing in 2014. The company says the new missile will include larger second- and third-stage rocket motors and a larger kinetic warhead to provide a greater area of defense against sophisticated threats." [20]
Last month it was disclosed that "Japan is likely to decide by year-end whether to order Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk surveillance aircraft that could later be upgraded to reinforce the country's ballistic missile defenses." [21] The transaction is expected to be authorized in the National Defense Program Guideline to be published later this year.
A Kyodo News report revealed that Japan would pay $150 million for three Global Hawk unmanned high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft to "deal with China's military rise" and to "defend remote Japanese islands."
The same news agency divulged in a separate report that "Japan and the US are planning to hold a joint military exercise in December focused on defending the disputed [Senkaku/Diaoyu] islands....said to have vast oil and gas reserves." [22]
An analysis in the Japan Times last month indicated the broader parameters of enhanced U.S.-Japanese military collaboration. It stated that "the scope of the Japan-U.S. military treaty has been extended far beyond 'the Far East,' roughly defined as areas north of the Philippines. The U.S. bases here support global engagements, including in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Indian Ocean.
USS George Washington and USS Blue Ridge are based in Yokosuka. The second is the flagship of the Seventh Fleet whose "area of responsibility ranges from the Kuril Islands in the north to the Antarctic, and from the international date line to the 68th meridian east at the India-Pakistan border.
"The area includes 35 maritime countries and the world's five largest armed forces outside the U.S. -- China, Russia, India, and North and South Korea. Five of the seven U.S. Mutual Defense Treaties are with countries in the area -- the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Thailand, according to the 7th Fleet's official website.
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