U.S. and Japan to Announce $12 Billion Missile Defense Production Deal on Feb. 15

The Tokyo Announcement

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2026 - The United States and Japan will announce a $12 billion joint production agreement for next-generation missile interceptors on Feb. 15 in Tokyo, according to two defense officials and a diplomat at NATO headquarters. The deal, which will expand an existing co-development program for the Glide Phase Interceptor, commits both governments to fund a new production line in Akita Prefecture and to upgrade radar manufacturing facilities in Tucson, Arizona, the officials said.

The announcement is scheduled for 10 a.m. local time at the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward and will follow a bilateral meeting between U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, the officials said. A joint statement is expected to outline a production target of 240 interceptors over the next eight years, with initial deliveries beginning in 2028.

Two defense officials said the agreement would direct $6.8 billion from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and $5.2 billion from Japan's Ministry of Defense. The funding will be split evenly between development and procurement, with U.S. contributions drawn from the fiscal 2026 defense appropriations bill and Japan's share included in a supplemental budget request expected to pass the Diet by March.

Industrial and Economic Scope

"This is an industrial agreement as much as a military one," a diplomat at NATO headquarters said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations that had not been made public. "The production targets are designed to reduce dependence on single-source suppliers in East Asia and to demonstrate that allied defense manufacturing can scale quickly."

The Glide Phase Interceptor, currently under development by Raytheon in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is intended to counter hypersonic weapons during their glide phase. The program received $1.4 billion in the fiscal 2026 defense bill, up from $810 million the previous year, according to congressional budget documents.

Under the new arrangement, final assembly of the interceptor's kinetic kill vehicle will move to a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries facility in Akita Prefecture beginning in 2029, while guidance systems and solid-rocket motors will continue to be produced at Raytheon's Tucson, Arizona, campus. Two defense contractors present at a Feb. 6 briefing at the Pentagon said the deal was expected to create roughly 1,200 U.S. jobs and 900 jobs in Japan.

Strategic Context

A congressional aide on the Foreign Relations Committee said lawmakers were notified of the broad outlines of the agreement on Feb. 9. The aide, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the State Department had submitted a preliminary congressional notification for the foreign military sale component and that a formal notification was expected within 72 hours of the Tokyo announcement.

The accelerated timeline reflects growing concern among U.S. and Japanese commanders about China's expanding hypersonic missile arsenal and North Korea's continued ballistic missile testing. A December 2025 U.S. Indo-Pacific Command assessment concluded that current missile defense architectures would face strain against a sustained salvo of hypersonic weapons, according to a defense official familiar with the report.

The deal also comes amid broader trade tensions. A diplomat at NATO headquarters said the agreement was partly intended to show that the U.S. and its allies could deepen defense industrial ties without resorting to tariffs. Japanese officials had pressed for U.S. commitments on technology transfer as part of the negotiations, the diplomat said.

What to Watch

A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the State Department was preparing talking points describing the agreement as a model for future co-production arrangements with Australia, South Korea, and the Philippines. The official said the department expected the arrangement to be raised during a planned Quad leaders meeting in New Delhi in April.

Negotiations over the financial structure were finalized during a Feb. 4 video conference between Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg and Japanese Vice Minister of Defense Kazuhiro Suzuki, two officials said. The officials said the two sides had resolved a lingering dispute over intellectual property rights for the interceptor's seeker technology, which will remain under U.S. control while Japan receives licensed production rights.

The agreement is expected to generate indirect economic activity in both countries. A defense industry analyst who attended a Feb. 5 presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the deal would likely benefit subcontractors in Huntsville, Alabama, where the Missile Defense Agency maintains its headquarters, and in Nagasaki Prefecture, where Mitsubishi Heavy Industries operates precision machining plants.

Defense officials said the Feb. 15 announcement would be followed by a visit from a delegation of U.S. senators to Tokyo and Seoul beginning Feb. 18. The delegation, led by Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is expected to review production sites and meet with Japanese defense industry executives.

The Alamo Post reported on Jan. 29 that the U.S. and Japan were nearing an expanded missile defense agreement. The Pentagon and the Japanese Ministry of Defense declined to comment.