In a sign of deepening military cooperation between Japan and the US, amphibious Japanese troops and US Marines yesterday practiced 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 defense policy guidelines is expected to call for the nation 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.
Photo: Reuters
Tilt-rotor Osprey troop carriers were used during the drills.
“The real significance from this training is that the [US] Marines and the ARDB are doing serious combat training of a sort that would have been unthinkable a decade ago,” said Grant Newsham, a retired US Marine Corps colonel who advised Japan as a liaison officer when it set up its amphibious force.
“It demonstrates a more solidly linked US and Japan,” he said.
Activated in 2018, the ARDB troops are Japan’s first marines since World War II and were formed to reinforce its defense along its southwest 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 about 1,500 troops would likely be one of the first in action to counter any Chinese attack on Japan’s islands.
Beijing, which is locked in a territorial dispute with Japan over uninhabited islands that are 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 Asian bases that are increasingly cooperating with the Chinese military.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS