Japan and US conduct first-ever airborne landing assaults in drill

TOKYO • In a sign of deepening military cooperation between Japan and the United States, amphibious Japanese troops and American Marines yesterday practised airborne landing assaults together for the first time.

Japan is revising a decade-old national security strategy this year in the face of China's growing military assertiveness.

The upgrade to defence policy guidelines is expected to call for the country to take a more active role alongside Washington in regional security.

The drills in the foothills of Mount Fuji yesterday involved 400 troops from Japan's Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB) and 600 US Marines, and is part of a three-week joint exercise to hone interoperability between the allies. Tilt-rotor Osprey troop carriers were used during the drills.

"The real significance from this training is that the Marines and the ARDB are doing serious combat training of a sort that would have been unthinkable a decade ago," said Mr Grant Newsham, a retired US Marine Corps colonel who advised Japan as a liaison officer when it set up its amphibious force.

Activated in 2018, the ARDB troops are Japan's first Marines since World War II and were formed to reinforce its defence along its south-west islands at the edge of the East China Sea.

Trained to take back captured islands using helicopters, Ospreys and amphibious landing craft, the force of around 1,500 soldiers would likely be one of the first in action to counter any Chinese attack on Japan's islands.

China, which is locked in a territorial dispute with Japan over uninhabited islands controlled by Tokyo in the East China Sea, routinely dispatches ships to assert its claims.

The joint drills also come as Russia's invasion of Ukraine raises fresh security concerns in East Asia, where China is putting pressure on Taiwan following its crackdown on Hong Kong.

Japan also faces Russia's forces operating from Far East bases that are increasingly cooperating with China's military. Moscow describes its military action in Ukraine as a "special operation".

In a related development, the Russian Army conducted an exercise in which it launched high-performance S-300V4 surface-to-air missiles in an area of the northern Pacific Ocean, according to the Russian news agency Tass. The area apparently included the northern territories of Japan.

The Eastern Military District of the Russian Army, which has jurisdiction over the Far East region, announced last Thursday that it had conducted the exercise, which is believed to have taken place on Etorofu, or Iturup, one of Japan's territorial islands. The island is said to be equipped with Russian missiles.

Moscow seems to be aiming to demonstrate its intention to counter Japan and the United States, which have imposed sanctions against Russia over the country's invasion of Ukraine. Russia had designated Japan and the United States as "unfriendly countries" on Monday.

The exercise was premised on the scenario of a virtual enemy aircraft having "invaded the territory". It is said that the S-300V4 shot down all targets, of which there were dozens.

The Japanese government protested to Russia through diplomatic channels. There was reportedly no prior notice of the drill from the Russian side.

REUTERS, THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK