Japan sees cost for land-based missile defense doubling initial quote

The Defense Ministry has newly estimated that the price tag of two land-based missile batteries Japan aims to deploy could cost around 400 billion yen ($3.6 billion), double the initial quotation, a government source said Monday.If the prices of interceptor missiles to be mounted on the batteries and other costs are included, the total costs of the two Aegis Ashore units could rise to nearly 600 billion yen, raising questions over the necessity for such an expensive system amid easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.The government is pushing to install the U.S.-developed Aegis Ashore syste…READ FULL ARTICLE