TOKYO – Japan and the US want to draw up a joint military plan for a possible emergency in Taiwan that would include the use of missiles, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday.
Under the plan, expected to be implemented next month, the US would deploy missile units to the Nansei Islands in Japan’s southwestern Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures, and to the Philippines, the report said, citing unnamed US and Japanese sources .
The U.S. Marine Corps’ Marine Littoral Regiment, which has High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and other weapons, will deploy to the Nansei Islands, Kyodo said.
A US unit dealing with space, cyberspace and electromagnetic waves will be stationed in the Philippines, the report said.
Calls to Japan’s Defense Ministry and the U.S. and Philippine embassies in Tokyo were not returned Sunday. — Reuters