US to establish AMRAAM facility in Japan, increase SM-3 production

The United States and Japan agreed to establish a final assembly and checkout facility in Japan for Raytheon's AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile. Their defense ministers also agreed to exchange technical information intended to increase production of the jointly developed SM-3 Block IIA ballistic-missile interceptor; this is a separate effort from the AMRAAM facility. The agreement follows discussions on missile co-production and is part of the bilateral Operation Supercharge initiative. Japan has not announced the planned site's location, construction schedule or output, and the governments have not specified how much SM-3 production might increase.