Story by Yoshihiro Inaba with additional reporting by Xavier Vavasseur
The ASM-3A announcement was made as part of a broader announcement in which the MoD published the “
XASM-3
JASDF F-2 fighter from Gifu air base in a test flight with two ASM-3 missiles in February 2020. Picture by local photographer Takeru Sugiyama.
For the record, Japan started full-scale development of a missile called XASM-3 in FY2010 that can be operated by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (航空自衛隊, Kōkū Jieitai or JASDF) F-2 fighter jets. The XASM-3 was an air-launched anti-ship missile (ASM) that cruised at supersonic speeds (above Mach 3) thanks to the combination of a solid rocket booster and ramjet engine. It had a range of about 200 km (108 nautical miles).