GSDF Ospreys to Land on Okinawa Main Island for 1st Time

Tokyo, Sept. 26 (Jiji Press)--MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force will land on Okinawa Prefecture's main island for the first time for large-scale exercises, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

About 33,000 Ground, Air and Maritime SDF personnel and some 12,000 U.S. military members will join the biennial Keen Sword drills set to run from Oct. 23 to Nov. 1.

The SDF and the U.S. military plan to conduct training in island defense and missile air defense across Japan. The militaries of Australia and Canada will join the exercises for the first time.

GSDF Osprey planes will be used for practicing transportation of injured people from the island of Tokunoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, to the ASDF's Naha base on the nearby Okinawa main island.

No Osprey plane has landed on the Okinawa main island so far, while such a landing has taken place on the prefecture's Ishigaki Island. During the drills, GSDF Ospreys are also expected to fly to Yonaguni, another Okinawa island.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]