The United States and Japan have agreed to establish a Japanese facility to jointly produce advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, a deal finalized Wednesday night in Cebu, Philippines, and framed by officials as a direct response to years of mounting alarm over China's military posture. Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi announced the agreement following talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling it part of a joint effort the two countries are calling Operation Supercharge.
According to WTOP, the facility will handle final assembly and inspection of AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, a radar-guided, fire-and-forget weapon that arms fighter jets including the F-35. Koizumi said the missiles are “essential for the F-35,” which the Japanese military also flies. The agreement caps negotiations that Air & Space Forces Magazine reports culminated in a finalized deal to build what the two countries call an AMRAAM final assembly and inspection facility on Japanese soil.
Japan's Ministry of Defense, in its own summary of the ministerial meeting, confirmed that Koizumi and Hegseth agreed to establish what it termed an AMRAAM FACO — final assembly and check-out facility — in Japan. The Japanese Ministry of Defense said the two ministers also agreed to share the technical information needed to enable increased production of the SM-3 Block IIA interceptor missile, expanding cooperation beyond the AMRAAM program alone.
A New Manufacturing Venture for Japan
Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is expected to manufacture the missiles under license from U.S. weapons maker Lockheed Martin, according to the same Air & Space Forces Magazine report. The outlet notes that Japan already produces Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles domestically, but taking on AMRAAM production would mark a new venture for the country's defense-industrial base.
The push for expanded missile output comes against a backdrop of strained supply. Per Air & Space Forces Magazine's reporting, the Pentagon and RTX announced a five-year AMRAAM production contract in September, with two additional option years, valued at up to $20.7 billion. That followed a February framework agreement calling for RTX to boost annual AMRAAM output to at least 1,900 missiles — a sharp jump from the roughly 400 or fewer missiles produced annually between the Air Force and Navy from fiscal 2017 through 2022, the outlet reported. The same account notes that AMRAAM production has been hampered by subcontractor component-supply problems and lag times in solid rocket motor manufacturing.
Deterrence Talk on the Sidelines in Cebu
Koizumi said he shared with Hegseth “a sense of crisis about the increasingly severe regional situation,” according to WTOP's account of the Cebu news conference, and the two ministers agreed to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance's deterrence and response capabilities with what Koizumi described as greater speed and intensity than before. The Japanese Ministry of Defense's summary of the meeting likewise describes an agreement to strengthen alliance deterrence “with greater speed and intensity than ever before,” and notes the ministers discussed the recent buildup of nuclear and missile capabilities in the region.
Koizumi said the discussions reaffirmed the importance of a free and open international order based on the rule of law, while stressing the talks were not aimed at any specific country, per WTOP's reporting. The meetings took place on the sidelines of the annual gathering of Southeast Asian defense chiefs, an event meant to avert major regional conflict and strengthen defense ties, where the United States, China and their respective allies have historically traded criticism.
Hegseth's Message to the Philippines
Hegseth also met separately with Philippine officials during the Cebu gathering, reaffirming what WTOP described as the Trump administration's commitment to deterring aggression in the region. Hegseth characterized the U.S. approach as “strong, quiet and clear,” saying it is meant to deter coercion and aggression while avoiding needless escalation or public theatrics, and to make clear that the United States will defend its own interests and those of its allies and partners.
The Philippines is described by WTOP as Washington's oldest treaty ally in Asia, and Hegseth assured Filipino officials that the Trump administration will build robust deterrence against what the outlet characterized as China's increasingly aggressive actions. Beijing claims virtually the entire South China Sea, a busy waterway and key global trade route where the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all hold overlapping claims. Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy vessels have seen particularly escalated confrontations in disputed shoals and outlying waters, and Washington has warned it is obligated to defend the Philippines if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
Japan, too, has its own maritime friction with Beijing: the two countries dispute a set of tiny Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea and routinely accuse each other of infringing on maritime territory, WTOP reported.
Why Missile Stockpiles Matter Now
The missile co-production push comes as the U.S. tries to expand and diversify supply while balancing domestic military requirements against export demand from Ukraine and other allies, a dynamic Air & Space Forces Magazine described as “mutually beneficial” for all sides. A separate analysis from the Hudson Institute notes that Japan continues to face persistent gaps in missile procurement, particularly involving interceptors, even as the country invests more heavily in its own defense-industrial capacity.
The Hudson Institute's research also points to the broader regional buildup fueling these decisions, noting that China's DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile inventory grew from zero in 2016 to approximately 550 by 2025. That kind of expansion has been central to the alarm that both Washington and Tokyo have cited in explaining why faster, deeper missile cooperation has become a priority. Neither the location of the new Japanese facility nor its production timeline has been disclosed, according to the available reporting.
