Friday, August 23, 2019

Japanese Officials Have Made A Request That The U.S. Marines Deploy F-35B Fighters Aboard Japan’s Largest Warships

An F-35B Lightning II with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), prepares to land aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2), while another F-35B Lightning II flies over on Dec. 4, 2018. US Marine Corps Photo

USNI News: Marines Considering Flying U.S. F-35Bs Off of Japan’s Largest Warships

THE PENTAGON – Officials in Tokyo have requested Marines deploy F-35B fighters aboard Japan’s largest warships, a U.S. defense official confirmed to USNI News on Friday.

The service is now studying the feasibility of deploying short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) fighters from JS Izumo (DDH-183) and JS Kaga (DDH-184), Japan’s 24,000-ton big deck amphibious.

The warships were originally designed to field a fleet of anti-submarine warfare helicopters and respond to humanitarian aid and disaster relief. However, in December Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved a move to convert the two ships to field the STOVL F-35s in parallel with Japan’s purchase of 42 F-35Bs, reported The Diplomat.

In March, the Abe government asked then-Marine commandant Gen. Robert Neller if the U.S. would consider deploying Marine F-35Bs from Izumo and Kaga, reported The Asahi Shimbun earlier this week.

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WNU Editor: The U.S. - Japanese military alliance is very close. The Japanese want to make it closer.

2 comments:

Jb said...

War war war its older then time itself

Anonymous said...

That was an 8 hour round trip. Faster, if they went sonic most of the way.

Still it is quite a trip. I wonder what the strike package looked like. The Iranians want to know and maybe they should be afraid. It would be interesting to know if they used F-35s, if Jordan was complacent, if Saudi Arabia helped, or if Russia looked the other way.