F-35 Joint Program Office Japan has previously resisted the temptation to purchase air-to-surface missiles for its fighters out of concern that its neighbours would accuse Tokyo of deploying an offensive military capability. Given the deteriorating security in northeast Asia, however, the government has decided to upgrade its strike capabilities, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Tuesday. Japan is expected to purchase the Joint Strike Missile (JSM), developed primarily by Norway’s Kongsberg Defence Systems. “The JSM has a tremendous capability and Japan has never previously had anything like this,” said Lance Gatling, a defence analyst and president of Tokyo-based Nexial Research Inc. The weapon is also available as an anti-shipping variant, Gatling said, and is housed internally on the F-35 to protect its stealth capabilities. “This weapon, combined with the F-35, will permit Japan to get much closer to targets with a high degree of stealth,” he added. Gatling said the JSM has a unitary warhead, meaning it is designed to detonate on specific targets and is therefore ideal for attacks on land-based intercontinental ballistic missile sites, such as command-and-control facilities, hardened bunkers and silo sites.