Mar 7, 2006, 14:47 GMT
Tokyo - Japan and the United States will test-fire this week a Japan-manufactured interceptor in Hawaii under the joint missile defence project, reported the Defence Agency Tuesday.
The missile, to be launched from a US Aegis destroyer, will attach the Japanese nosecone prototype to a conventional Standard Missile-3 interceptor.
The Japanese cabinet approved in late December the joint test and the further development of the advanced missile interceptor with the US.
Japan will bear the costs of the joint defence project estimated at 1 to 1.2 billion dollars.
The two governments started joint research on missile defence in 1999, a year after North Korea launched a long-range missile as a test and flew it over the Japanese archipelago into the Pacific Ocean.
The Japan-US missile test-fire is to check whether the nosecone, which protects sensors and other devices from falling off in the final stage of intercepting an incoming ballistic missile, correctly breaks off from the interceptor in midair, Kyodo News Agency said.
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