The United States on Monday revealed a plan to deploy four launch pads for a U.S.-led missile defense system in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa later this week and moved part of equipment for the system from a port to the U.S. Kadena Air Base amid local protest.

U.S. Forces officers in Japan said they plan to place one pad in four locations in and near the air base for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor system.

The move, coming about three months after North Korea test-fired missiles into the Sea of Japan in July, fueled speculation among analysts that the Japanese and U.S. governments plan to begin part of the PAC-3 system operation by the end of this year.

The officers said each of the four launch pads, to be in the base and the adjacent U.S. military's Kadena Ammunition Storage Area, will be equipped with six missiles. The air base occupies a large part of the town of Kadena.

The U.S. military plans to unload the four launch pads and 24 missiles at the U.S. Navy's Tengen Pier in Uruma, according to the officers.

On early Monday morning, the U.S. military started delivering the first batch of PAC-3 equipment from a military port in the Okinawa prefectural capital of Naha to the Kadena base, about 20 kilometers away. The equipment arrived in the port on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the development fueled strong protest among locals in Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan, with about 300 people staging a rally near the air base. A participant shouted, "We won't tolerate Patriot deployment!"

Local peace activist Natsume Taira, a clergyman who joined the rally, said, "I'll resist any moves aimed at enhancing Okinawa's functions as military bases."

Mitsuko Tomon who is mayor of Okinawa City, near Kadena, lodged a protest with the Japanese Defense Facilities Administration Agency, a liaison organization with the U.S. military, against allowing the deployment of the missile defense system without local consent.

Part of the city's land is also used for the U.S. air 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 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.