More than 50 American and Japanese warplanes flew over waters near Japan this week as the two allies made a show of force amid rising tensions in the region with China and Russia.
A dozen of the US Air Force’s top-of-the-line F-22 stealth fighter jets, four F-35 stealth jets and 13 F-15 jets participated in the exercises, the Japanese Defense Ministry said in a press release on Thursday.
The US fighters were accompanied by 20 Japanese F-15 and F-2 fighter jets and three US reconnaissance and support aircraft.
The Japanese and US fighter jets flew over the skies of the Sea of Japan, Pacific Ocean and East China Sea in an effort to improve tactical skills and “joint response capability”, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.
The US Air Force did not immediately comment on this week’s exercises, but the service said in a press release last month that it had dispatched 12 Hawaiian Air National Guard F-22 fighter jets to Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa.
The F-22s were in Japan to carry out “various missions to increase operational readiness to defend Japan and ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the US statement said.
Also this week, US and Japanese maritime patrol aircraft conducted an exercise near the Nansei Islands, the Japanese territory closest to Taiwan and near the Senkaku Islands, the uninhabited archipelago also claimed by China, which it refers to as Diaoyus.
This exercise was carried out to “strengthen the Japan-US Alliance’s capacity for effective deterrence,” the Japanese statement said.
The Coast Guard and Chinese naval vessels spent record time in the waters around Senkakus this year, according to Japan’s Ministry of Defense.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN earlier this year that Chinese Coast Guard patrols in the waters around the islands were “a proper exercise of China’s sovereign right.”
Meanwhile, Chinese and Russian warships have been increasing their presence in Japan in recent weeks.
Late last month, Tokyo said a total of eight Chinese and Russian ships had been spotted in waters off Japan.
A Russian flotilla of five ships sailed near the Japanese islands for a week, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south, the ministry said in a press release.
Meanwhile, at least two Chinese warships and a supply ship were spotted off the Izu Islands, about 500 km south of the capital Tokyo. One of these ships appeared to be the Lhasa, a Type 55 guided missile destroyer and one of China’s most powerful surface ships.
This week’s exercises come as the US Air Force has moved some of its most vital assets to the Indo-Pacific.
Two B-2 stealth bombers deployed from their base in Missouri to Royal Australian Air Force Base Amberley, where they “will conduct training missions and strategic deterrence missions with allies, partners and joint forces in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” The US Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) said in a statement on Sunday.
“This B-2 deployment to Australia demonstrates and enhances the readiness and lethality of our long-range penetrating strike force,” said Lt. Col. Andrew Kousgaard, commander of the 393rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron in the PACAF statement.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
