U.S. deploys Guam-based high-altitude surveillance drone to Yokota base
An RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone arrived at Yokota Air Base Monday night, starting a five-month operation in Tokyo, the U.S. base announced.
The U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk drone is expected to survey ballistic missiles and nuclear facilities in North Korea, which have fueled political tensions over the past month.
The aircraft is part of the
69th Reconnaissance Group Detachment 1 and provides near real-time aerial imagery reconnaissance support to U.S. and partner nations, according to the base’s website.
Four more Global Hawks are slated to be deployed to the base. A total of 110 staff members, including mechanics, are set to be stationed there in a related move.
The aircraft flew from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. Normally, drones and members of the detachment travel from their Guam home base during typhoon season to operate out of Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture. Renovations to the runway at Misawa made that impossible last year and this year.
The mission involves partnering with Japan and helping with humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and counter-piracy and counter-terrorism operations, the Stars and Stripes newspaper quoted Detachment 1 commander Col. Jeremy Fields as saying.
According to Defense Ministry officials, the drone is capable of capturing aerial images and electronic data from an altitude of around 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) or more — higher than the altitude at which commercial aircraft typically fly.
The drone will be controlled by remote from Yokota during takeoff and landing, and then from the U.S. mainland once it reaches a sufficient altitude.
Municipalities near the Yokota base have made a request through the Japanese Defense Ministry that U.S. forces take thorough safety measures in operating the Global Hawks.
Global Hawks do not have offensive capabilities. The Defense Ministry has decided to introduce three of them for the Self-Defense Forces, and will start deploying one at Misawa at the end of fiscal 2019.
Elsewhere, the Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier Izumo joined a U.S. Navy vessel at sea on Monday in the first protection mission enabled by security legislation that took effect last year and has expanded the role of the Self-Defense Forces.
The Japan-U.S. cooperation comes amid rising tensions over North Korea, which continues to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The country test-fired a ballistic missile on Saturday.
As the region remains on alert, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump held another informal talk by telephone on Monday, sources said Tuesday, as bilateral defense forces entered a new stage of cooperation.
The conversation was held on Monday morning Japan time and lasted about 30 minutes, according to the sources. No announcement of the talks was made by the Japanese government, a rarity for such events.
Abe and Trump held three formal telephone meetings last month, which focused on the mounting threat from North Korea.
The Foreign Ministry reiterated caution to journalists, urging them to refrain from visiting North Korea, as part of Tokyo’s unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang that have been in place since February 2016.
Amid rising tensions, many reporters traveled to the reclusive state to cover a military parade on April 15.
The ministry made the request in a statement issued on Monday to the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association and member media organizations of a press club at the ministry.
Since February last year, the government has been urging citizens to avoid travel to the North, and stated that it is generally forbidden to make payments to the country, except for humanitarian purposes.
