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| Image: Wiki Commons |
By Franz-Stefan Gady
Tokyo has recently doubled the number of fighter jets stationed at Okinawa’s Naha Air Base.
For the first time in about 50 years, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) has stood up a new air wing consisting of Mitsubishi F-15J all-weather air superiority fighters at Naha Air Base, located in the capital city of Okinawa, Japan’s most southern prefecture, according to local media reports.
The stationing of additional fighter jets is part of Tokyo’s efforts to enhance the defenses of the Ryukyu Islands chain (known in Japanese as the Nansei islands), which stretches southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan. The push comes amidst China’s growing assertiveness and military presence in the East China Sea — Beijing and Tokyo both claim sovereignty over a group of uninhabited islands there, known in Japan as the Senkakus and in China as the Diaoyus.
As The Diplomat reported in October 2015, the JASDF had to dispatch its fighter jets 117 times against Chinese aircraft in the third quarter of 2015, up from 103 times in the same period in 2014. Most of the encounters occurred in the East China Sea. Overall, JASDF jets were scrambled 441 times from Naha Air Base in 2015, against mostly against incursions from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).
The new JASDF unit, the 9th Air Wing, was officially stood up on Sunday during a ceremony at Naha Air Base, where Japan’s Parliamentary Vice Minister of Defense Kenji Wakamiya handed the flag for the new air wing to the unit’s commander, Kiyoaki Kawanami, NHK World reports.
Read the full story at The Diplomat