When life gives you yuzu...

...toss them in the bathtub for effect!

Aegis ship boasts most advanced missile defense system
The Japan Times

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The U.S. Navy plans to forward-deploy its most advanced missile defense cruiser to Japan later this year, U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Gary Roughead said Tuesday.

The Aegis cruiser USS Shiloh has the most advanced ballistic missile defense system.
The U.S. this summer will conduct its largest naval drills -- with four aircraft carrier strike groups -- in the Pacific in a decade, Roughead said in a speech to the Asia Society.

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Roughead told the lunch meeting the 9,600-ton Shiloh will replace a similar ship already in Japan, saying it "will have the most advanced ballistic missile defense capability on board."

The Shiloh has taken part in the initial flight tests of the advanced Standard Missile-3 defense system.

Japan and the United States are jointly developing a larger, upgraded version of the SM-3 interceptor missiles.

I guess Japan should be just panting with excitement--Gosh, the U.S. Navy likes me! It really likes me!-- except that I have the sneaking suspicion that the U.S.S. Shiloh is a something like a prototype Maserati school bus--it looks cool, can deliver the kids the school faster than any bus ever built but it is not quite what the school board wants so where should we park it?

The mention of the Shiloh's participation in the SM-3 tests is curiously weak. The Shiloh did not just take part--it was the launch platform.

Also the simultaneous mentions of "the most advanced missile defense cruiser," " the most advanced ballistic missile defense capability on board" and the SM-3 are somewhat misleading. Whatever system the U.S.S. Shiloh will have on it when it deploys to Japan, it will not be the SM-3--and it I suspect it will be the same system installed on the U.S.S. Cape St. George and the U.S.S. Lake Erie.