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| F/A-18 Super Hornet (File Photo) |
TOKYO — U.S. and Japanese fighter jets on Jan. 15 carried out joint air exercises, an official said, days after Chinese and Japanese military planes shadowed one another near disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The five-day exercise involves six U.S. FA-18 fighters and around 90 American personnel, along with four Japanese F-4 jets and an unspecified number of people, the official said.
The drill is being carried out over Pacific waters off the coast of Shikoku, the fourth largest of Japan’s islands. It comes weeks after hawkish new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won an election landslide following campaign promises to re-invigorate Tokyo’s security alliance with Washington and take a more robust line against Beijing.
The exercise also comes as a stand-off between China and Japan over the sovereignty of the disputed East China Sea islands shows no signs of letting up. Tokyo reportedly scrambled fighter jets on Jan. 10 to head off Chinese military planes in an area adjoining the airspace of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus. A Chinese defense ministry official later said two J-10 fighters flew to the area to monitor two Japanese F-15 fighters that had trailed a Chinese Y-8 aircraft, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.
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