Japan’s efforts to build a long-range capability to strike Chinese warships reached a milestone last week as flight testing began for the air-launched variant of its upgraded Type 12 anti-ship missile , a weapon with a reported range of about 1,000km (620 miles). China’s PLA test fires missile into PacificThe missile is part of Japan’s broader effort to have locally developed, multi-domain counterstrike capabilities. The ground-launched variant entered service in March as the Type 25, extending the range of Japan’s indigenous anti-ship missile force from about 200km to about 1,000km. Defence expert Yoshihiro Inaba, the Japan correspondent for the Naval News website, said the air-launched variant offered platform flexibility, making it considerably more difficult for Chinese forces to predict where strikes could come from. “The introduction of this upgraded Type 12 fundamentally changes this equation by allowing strikes to be launched from the airspace over Kyushu, and even Honshu,” Inaba said.