TOKYO: Japan’s Ministry of Defence is arranging to develop multiple long-range missiles with a range of up to about 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) and aims to deploy them in the 2030s, Kyodo news reported on Saturday, citing a source familiar with the matter.

The government is looking to deploy a 2,000-km range missile by the early 2030s and a 3,000-km hypersonic missile that can reach anywhere in North Korea and some parts of China by around 2035, Kyodo said.

Japan this month unveiled its biggest military build-up since World War Two with a $320 billion plan that will buy missiles capable of striking China and ready it for sustained conflict, as regional tensions and Russia’s Ukraine invasion stoke war fears.

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