Oct 2 12:37 AM US/EasternNAHA, Japan, Oct. 2 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Okinawa Mayor Mitsuko Tomon lodged a protest on Monday with the local bureau of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency against allowing the deployment of an advanced surface-to-air missile defense system at a U.S. base in the city without local consent.
The first batch of equipment for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor system arrived Saturday in Okinawa Prefecture ahead of the deployment of the system later this year at the U.S. Kadena Air Base and the U.S. Air Force's Kadena Ammunition Storage Area.
The U.S. forces started delivering the equipment early Monday morning from a military port in the Okinawa prefectural capital of Naha to the Kadena base, about 20 kilometers away.
The mayor of Okinawa and the village heads of Kadena and Chatan, which host the Kadena base, earlier agreed to oppose the deployment, saying it will lead to strengthening the functions of the base.
The deployment is being implemented based on an agreement reached between Japan and the United States in May on the realignment of the U.S. military presence in Japan.
The amount of equipment which arrived Saturday is enough to fill some 500 vehicles and will take four or five days to finish carrying. Another, smaller, amount of equipment is expected to arrive at the Naha military port by the end of this week, according to the U.S. forces.
The PAC-3 missiles and launchers are scheduled to be brought within two weeks to a U.S. military facility in Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture.
The United States plans to partially begin the operation of the PAC-3 system by the end of December. It is expected to become fully operational by the end of next March.
The PAC-3 system is designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in their final phase, after they have reentered the Earth's atmosphere and have descended to altitudes of just over a dozen kilometers and before they reach their targets on the ground, Japanese officials said earlier.
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