07/09/2026
Japan Eyes 100-Plus Satellite Network to Boost Missile Targeting Capabilities
The Japanese government is considering expanding its satellite constellation to more than 100 satellites to strengthen the effectiveness of its counterstrike capabilities, which rely on long-range missiles to neutralize potential threats.
The plan is intended to improve Japan’s ability to detect, identify and continuously track targets, thereby enhancing the intelligence capabilities that underpin its deterrence posture. The government plans to include the policy direction in revisions to Japan’s three key national security documents later this year, according to multiple government and ruling-party sources.
The Defense Ministry plans to significantly expand the current satellite network, which is expected to comprise several dozen satellites. A larger constellation would improve Japan’s ability to locate and track moving targets, including naval vessels and transporter erector launchers, or TELs, used to transport and launch missiles.
Satellite intelligence would also be used for maritime surveillance, particularly to strengthen monitoring over the Pacific, where Japan has relatively limited coverage from ground-based warning and control radars.
China and North Korea operate large numbers of mobile missile launchers, making it difficult to determine launch locations in advance. Japan is expected to rely on U.S. satellite intelligence for the time being to help detect such mobile targets, but the government regards the development of its own satellite surveillance network as an urgent priority.
Under the current program, Japan plans to establish a surveillance network consisting of several dozen satellites by the end of fiscal 2027 and operate it through the end of fiscal 2030. The Defense Ministry allocated ¥283.2 billion for the program in its initial fiscal 2025 budget.
The proposed network of more than 100 satellites would be developed under a successor program beginning in fiscal 2031. The government is considering more than doubling spending compared with the current program.
As with the existing satellite constellation, the expanded network would be developed under a private finance initiative, or PFI, using satellites owned and operated by Japanese private-sector companies.
The Defense Ministry would have priority access to satellite imaging, while participating companies would be permitted to sell imagery to other customers when capacity is available. Officials hope the arrangement will stimulate Japan’s commercial space industry and create what one senior Defense Ministry official described as a “virtuous cycle between defense and the economy.”
The expanded satellite network is considered essential to improving the effectiveness of Japan’s stand-off missiles, which are designed to strike targets from beyond the range of an adversary’s weapons.
In March, the Self-Defense Forces deployed the Type 25 surface-to-ship guided missile, which has a range of more than 1,000 kilometers, in Kumamoto Prefecture.
At the end of August, the Aegis destroyer Chokai returned to Nagasaki Prefecture after completing modifications enabling it to launch U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range exceeding 1,600 kilometers.
Separately, the Defense Ministry is also seeking to establish a space-based surveillance network capable of detecting and tracking hypersonic glide vehicles, or HGVs, being developed by countries including China and Russia.
A satellite constellation is a network of numerous small satellites deployed in low Earth orbit and operated as an integrated system. Under the Defense Ministry’s plan, high-resolution optical satellites would be combined with synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, satellites, which use reflected radio waves to observe targets at night and through cloud cover. The satellites would be deployed at altitudes below 2,000 kilometers.
https://article.auone.jp/137642f3-8585-4e46-91b9-2677af3ac1b4
