MOSCOW. Nov 2 (Interfax-AVN) - Japan has everything that is necessary to create means of nuclear weapons delivery, Doctor Viktor Pavlyatenko, an authoritative expert in Japanese military strategy, told Intefax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
"Japan has solid-propellant missile systems that can be converted into intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads," said Pavlyatenko, who heads the Japan sector in the Institute of Far Eastern Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"Japan's M-5 and J-1 missiles are comparable with U.S. MX Peacekeeper and Minutemen-3 systems respectively," he said. The M-5 technology makes it possible to fit the missile with five to 10 splitting warheads of 300 kg each, he stressed.
As to detonators, "this problem does not exist taking into account the Japanese industry's achievements in mechanics and electronics," the expert went on. "Japanese oil companies have created and are successfully using unique detonation devices at oil extraction sites in the Far East, and they can be used as detonation in nuclear weapons, too," Pavlyatenko said.