Japan's Largest Live-Fire Drill First Time Publicly Showcases Long-Range Missile System

(CNA Tokyo, 7th, Comprehensive Foreign Report) The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) held Japan's largest domestic live-fire exercise, the 'Fuji Comprehensive Firepower Exercise,' in Shizuoka Prefecture today. The launcher for the 'Type 25 High-Speed Gliding Missile,' a long-range missile deployed by Japan in March this year at Camp Fuji, was also publicly unveiled for the first time.

According to Kyodo News, this annual exercise was held at the Higashi-Fuji Training Area in Shizuoka Prefecture. This year, as in the past, in addition to deploying equipment such as artillery and tanks, it also simulated island combat scenarios and the process of counter-attacking after being invaded by an enemy.

In the battlefields of Ukraine and the Middle East, the increasing importance of drones can be seen. The JGSDF has also included an exercise to deal with drones this time.

An explosion occurred during training at the Híji-dai Training Area in Oita Prefecture in April this year, causing 3 deaths and 1 injury. The 'Type 10 tank' that was participating in the training at that time did not take part in this Fuji exercise; instead, the older 'Type 90 tank' was used to fire non-explosive training shells.

Japan's Defense Minister Minoru Kihara also visited Shizuoka Prefecture today to inspect the exercise. During the drill, SDF members used rifles with automatic aiming functions to shoot down flying drones; the exercise content also included successively bombarding hypothetical targets and clearing hypothetical enemies in trenches.

The long-range missiles introduced by the Japanese government for the purpose of possessing 'counter-strike capability' (enemy base attack capability) also appeared in this year's exercise, with the launcher for the 'Type 25 High-Speed Gliding Missile,' deployed at Camp Fuji in March this year, being dispatched.

The JGSDF named the 'High Velocity Gliding Projectile for island defense' (HVGP) as the 'Type 25 High-Speed Gliding Missile' in March. This missile has a range of several hundred kilometers and can fly in an irregular trajectory.

In this exercise, only the launch vehicle of the 'Type 25 High-Speed Gliding Missile' was dispatched and did not actually fire, but its image was captured and appeared on the exercise screen at the venue.

Japan's Fuji News Network (FNN) pointed out that this was the first public unveiling of the launcher for the 'Type 25 High-Speed Gliding Missile.'

About 3,000 people were dispatched for this exercise, with about 50 vehicles, including tanks and armored vehicles, and about 50 artillery pieces such as howitzers being mobilized.

This exercise included two sessions, day and night, with a total of 69.5 tonnes of ammunition used. (Compiler: Yang Wei-ching) 1150607