Japan will carry out its first test launch of the US-developed SM-3 missile interceptor system next week from a Japanese warship in waters off Hawaii, a defence ministry spokeswoman said Thursday.
It will be the first test of the Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) by a country other than the United States, the spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity.
The destroyer Kongo will launch the missile — from waters off Kauai Island — to intercept a mock target fired from onshore.
"The actual date of the test will be decided depending on weather and other conditions," the spokeswoman said.
Japan and the United States have been working jointly to erect a missile shield against possible attacks from North Korea, which fired a missile over Japan's main island and into the Pacific in 1998.
SM-3 missile interceptors will be based on Japanese destroyers equipped with the state-of-the-art Aegis air-defence system.
Japan in March deployed the first missile defence system of its own in the Tokyo area a year ahead of schedule amid tense relations with North Korea, which also tested a nuclear bomb last year.
The United States last year installed a missile shield, the first in Japan, on the southern island of Okinawa.
