Japan increased the number of jets deployed for scrambles against foreign airplanes from two to four.
The Japan Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) has doubled the number of fighter jets dispatched to intercept foreign military aircraft approaching Japanese airspace from two to four in 2016, sources within Japan’s Ministry of Defense revealed on February 25.
The increase in JASDF fighter jets responding to potential airspace violations comes amidst rising tensions with China over its growing military presence in the East China Sea, where Beijing and Tokyo both claim sovereignty over a group of uninhabited islands, known in Japan as the Senkakus and in China as the Diaoyus. It is also in the East China Sea where both countries’ air defense identification zones overlap.
As I reported previously , for the first time in about 50 years, the JASDF stood up a new air wing consisting of Mitsubishi F-15J all-weather air superiority fighters in Okinawa, Japan’s most southern prefecture in early 2016.
