Yokosuka: The USS Shiloh, the first missile defence-capable ship to be deployed in Japan, arrived in the port of Yokosuka yesterday, eight weeks after North Korea unnerved the region with a barrage of missile tests.
White-clad sailors lined the decks of the 10,000-tonne cruiser as it pulled slowly into the US naval base 45km southwest of Tokyo, to be greeted with a Japanese-style taiko drum performance by US seamen.
The deployment of the Shiloh, boasting Standard Missile-3 interceptors for shooting down medium-range ballistic missiles, is a symbolic first step in a joint programme to try to shield Japan and the region from missile attack.
