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February 28, 2014 2:00 am JST
Japan to shift air power to southwest
Japanese F-2 jets prep for training with American forces at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.
TOKYO -- Japan's defense ministry will position more anti-ship fighter jets at a southwestern air base, bringing them closer to waters where the Chinese naval presence is growing.
The move is part of a reorganization meant to better defend the Nansei Islands, thearchipelago stretching southwestfrom the Japanese mainland and including Okinawa.
A squadron of F-2 fighters will relocate from the Misawa air base at thenorthern tip of Japan's main island to the Tsuiki air base in Fukuoka Prefecture. Armed with anti-ship missiles and precision-guided bombs, these jets can pound sea and land targets in the event that an outlying island is invaded.
This will place a second squadron of F-2s at Tsuiki, located on Kyushu, the westernmost of Japan's main islands. The base "is close to the Nansei Islands, so there are advantages to a buildup," a senior Ministry of Defense official says.
A squadron of F-15 fighters, the type that scramble in response to possible threats, will move from Tsuiki to the Naha base in Okinawa, joining another one already there.
The reorganization is outlined in a five-year plan for the Self-Defense Forcesfinalized in December. Given China's rapid military buildup, bolstering air powerin Kyushu and Okinawa will take priority for Japan in the near term.
Misawa is slated to be the first base in Japan to host the F-35 stealth fighter, the Air Self-Defense Force's next-generation combat plane, as early as fiscal 2017.
(Nikkei)
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