The Japanese government is set to provide the United States with the Patriot interceptor missiles owned by Japan's Self-Defense Forces.

The government last Friday revised its guidelines on defense equipment transfers. This made it possible for Japan to export equipment manufactured domestically under license from a foreign firm to a country where the licenser is based.

The systems that Tokyo has decided to send to the US under the revised rules are PAC-2 units, which are used to mainly intercept aircraft and cruise missiles, as well as PAC-3 units, which intercept ballistic missiles.

Japan's Defense Ministry said the decision was made at the request of the US, whose stockpiles of interceptor missiles have dwindled as it sent military aid to Ukraine.

Tokyo plans to send the PAC-2 units currently owned by the nation's Self-Defense Forces to the US, because officials say it would take several years for Japanese makers to produce new ones from scratch and export them.

Defense Ministry officials said they will further discuss details of the plan with their US counterparts next year.

The officials added that Japan's own stockpiles of Patriot missiles are insufficient.