TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The delivery of 400 Tomahawk missiles to Japan has been delayed as the Pentagon seeks to replenish weapons stockpiles that have been severely depleted during its war with Iran.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Koizumi Shinjiro, Japan’s defense minister, about the delay earlier this month, Financial Times cited people familiar with the matter as saying.
The Tomahawks were originally to be delivered in two batches of 200 missiles by April 2028. One source said the deal could be postponed by up to two years.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the US launched more than 1,000 Tomahawks out of an estimated 3,100 during five weeks of attacks against Iran, per Financial Times.
The high volume of missiles used against Iran, along with the relocation of weapons systems, such as the THAAD system in South Korea, from Asia to the Middle East, has raised concerns about whether the US military has sufficient weapons to assist Taiwan in a conflict with China, Financial Times said.
The delay also raises doubts about whether Japan can build up deterrence against China. It ordered the Tomahawks in 2024 for NT$73.87 billion (US$2.35 billion). The missiles have a range of 1,600 km, allowing Japan to strike China’s coast, according to Financial Times.
Tatsumi Yuki, a Japanese defense expert at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security, said Japan faces a “considerable complication” as it updates its national security and defense strategies this year. “The current plan has been built on the assumption that Japan receives this delivery on time, with the ongoing revision [of the strategies] looking to potentially boost the acquisition of Tomahawk even further,” she said, per Financial Times.
“It is an integral part of Japan’s effort to enhance its deterrence capability,” Tatsumi said.
Minemura Kenji, an Asia defense expert at The Canon Institute for Global Studies, said the Tomahawks were vital for Japan’s defense because it essentially has no equivalent to the more than 2,000 Chinese long-range missiles that can strike Japan, Financial Times reported.
“Closing this ‘missile gap’ is the purpose behind the counterstrike capability the Japanese government is now building, and the Tomahawk is its centrepiece,” Minemura said. “A delay in US deliveries of Tomahawks ... will almost inevitably erode the joint US-Japan deterrent against China still further.”
With no Tomahawks, Japan will accelerate efforts to develop and produce domestic missiles, including the extended-range Type 12 and Hyper Velocity Gliding Projectile, Tatsumi and Minemura said.
