politics

U.S. military to deploy 5 Ospreys at Yokota in October

34 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© KYODO

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

34 Comments
Login to comment

All controversy aside, I am interested in seeing one of these flying over someday.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

I wonder If they are going to protest this and also the ones slated for the JASDF?

5 ( +8 / -3 )

"A total of 24 MV-22s have been deployed at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in a crowded residential area of Ginowan in Okinawa".

Yubaru:

Remember, they are only deployed in a crowded residential area because the Okinawan government and the national government took over 20 years to get anything done.

Dont blame the US military for upgrading it's equipment

The Ospreys are deployed in a crowded area as Futenma Air Station because it is the only AS the US Marines Corps have in Okinawa. There is the largest US installation in Asia-Pacific: Kadena Air Base and it is by the beach side - but that is an US US Air Force base - you see, they don't share resources. It seems  that the locals have the burden of protecting themselves from these "upgraded equipment" because the order of things within the US Military cannot be changed?

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Yubaru - The "only" reason the area is crowded in the first place is because people made a conscious decision to build their homes and schools around the base.

By the way, as you evidently are unaware, the AF already "shares" Kadena with the AF. While combining all three air wings onto Kadena may be one solution, it would make things a hell of a lot worse for the surrounding communities for a host of reasons.

You also have no idea about the geography of Okinawa if you think Kadena is located "beach-side" as well.

Really annoying how folks who make posts like this, they THINK they know something thanks to Google Sensei, but the reality is far from it!

I am Okinawan by blood and by residence.  Let's just say my job allows me to be at ALL US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force bases on the Island. I don't think I would need Google to verify my facts - I live in it.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

DaDude,

Why would you chat with him if you dislike the US military?

Who said I don't like individual people working for the US military?

Just for the record:

I'm not anti-US.

I'm not anti-military.

What I am for or against isn't part of this discussion. But to answer your question:

I was talking to this guy in my business. He was a good guy. Since there is a lot of controversy about the Osprey, I was glad of the opportunity to find out first hand. He thought the design was terrible and that it is a deathtrap - that was the way he described it, not me.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Don't forget the 'emergency landing that took off a couple hours later and wasn't really an emergency' articles.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

So tokyoites have to not only worry about earthquake and tsunami, but armed planes falling on kindergartens

3 ( +7 / -4 )

There is a Mainichi article quoting the Japan Defense Ministry that says the Osprey accident rate is on a par for other US military aircraft.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Get ready for a slew of "hard landing" articles.

Haha

The media loves to overhype things here.... Oh wait, there no political agenda for US bases in Tokyo so we'll likely hear nothing.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

The aircraft, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but cruises like a plane, has a record of accidents, including a fatal crash of an MV-22 -- the Marine Corps variant of the Osprey -- in Australia in 2017 and a crash-landing of another MV-22 in Okinawa, southwestern Japan, in 2016.

Both mishaps were due to pilot error, not aircraft design or characteristics. I have no concerns any time I fly in an Osprey.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

The ospreys come for maintenance once in a while in my city in the US and they have a very distinct sound and loud vs an apache or some other helicopter. I would not want to live near a base....it gets tiring day after day but I guess it is necessary and justified in some cases. Japan is too small and don't have the luxury of picking base real estate in every case....I guess they have to deal with it one way or other.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

boycott as many US products as possible and do not do business with the bases.

Fortunately, this will have zero effect on the military's presence in Japan. The US military really does not care if you didn't eat a Big Mac.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Okinawans are welome to try, Im sure the marines have more than enough resources to fly and boat all their food and fuel in their bases. well see whos economy takes a dive the deepest the US taxpayer funded bases or the Okinawans economy*

I'll bet you anything that it won't hurt the Okinawan economy as much as you think it would, and it's based upon facts and reality of today rather than speculation.

Taxpayer funded? Yeah about 15% according to official Defense Department information. Not to mention that The bases account for less than 5% of the GDP of Okinawa.

So, while overall it wont do much to the Okinawan economy, it will hurt plenty that are directly connected with them for their livelihoods.

Also, if it got to the point that the Marines had to fly in supplies, it wouldn't be the Marines anyway, it would be the AF, then Okinawa is already lost and we are at war. So it's a moot point either way.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

A total of 24 MV-22s have been deployed at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in a crowded residential area of Ginowan in Okinawa.

Remember, they are only deployed in a crowded residential area because the Okinawan government and the national government took over 20 years to get anything done.

Dont blame the US military for upgrading it's equipment

1 ( +11 / -10 )

I know why USA military wants Ospreys at their bases, Osprey can fly long distance where helicopters are very short range but USA technology for aircraft is declining to see many accidents of those Ospreys. Probably need combination of British Harrier jet reverse thrust, as most of the accidents at landing are the imbalance of both propellers to stay even. The unfairness that prevailed from end of ww2 still exist in Japan for many US military aircraft flies over the cities downtown (especially those Ospreys) and no Japanese aircraft are able to fly American bases, as well as JSDF.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Ospreys are new type of aeroplanes. There is always innovations in military technologies. It is a future type aeroplanes. However, Yokota is surrounded by civilian housings too closely. The Air Base has to move to a new place.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

hmmm... what about these incidents in Japan?

Ground Self Defense Force helicopter crashed in a residential area in Feb 2018.

This month a Rescue helicopter crashed killing all 9 aboard.

Last year 9 people died in another helicopter accident during training.

Not a whisper from the media about the safety of the aircraft involved in those incidents.... but the Ospreys... oh those "unsafe" Ospreys.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

It seems to me that Military airplanes/helicopters cause accident one in a while. A long time ago, Air SDF fighter jet hit a commercial airplane in drill accidentally and all passengers died there. US military airplane/copter crashed into resident area and some locals died there. I just want to say something, don't get involved civilians whatever and stay away from densely populated area. I don't mind soldiers die in drill or combat.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

These "US Osprey haters" had better get used to JGSDF Ospreys flying overhead.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Get ready for a slew of "hard landing" articles.

as compared to the Japan helicopter crashes that have killed numerous people in the last couple years, id even guess that the Osprey has a lower mortality rate to helicopters in Japan over the same period. Might be time we started to ban helicopters

0 ( +4 / -4 )

America only occupies 3.5 percent of Japan. Unfortunate for Okinawa.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Asked if Okinawa-based Marine units could be relocated to Taiwan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan Joseph Wu answered: "Responsibility to defend one’s own country rests with that country and so there’s no need for the marines to move to Taiwan” (Aug. 2, Ryukyu Shinpo).

Notified matter-of-factly by Washington that 5 AV-22 Ospreys will be deployed to Yokota Base, which is located in the middle of a densely populated district in Metropolitan Tokyo, all the Japanese government could do was just nodding. 

What does this mean? It no doubt means Japan is still under U.S. military occupation, so that the U.S. military can do whatever it wants to do in Japan with impunity. A great bilateral relationship indeed!

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Japan is still under U.S. military occupation, so that the U.S. military can do whatever it wants to do in Japan with impunity. A great bilateral relationship indeed!

For now. But patience and peaceful protest will pay off, eventually. In the meantime, continue to boycott as many US products as possible and do not do business with the bases.

The US military is not welcome but American people are. And no doubt, will continue to be long after their occupying forces leave.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

I am Okinawan by blood and by residence. Let's just say my job allows me to be at ALL US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force bases on the Island. I don't think I would need Google to verify my facts - I live in it.

Then you know that the Navy already shares Kadena, so your previous comment was what? Because you evidently were unaware of that fact when you commented about "sharing" Kadena.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

For now. But patience and peaceful protest will pay off, eventually. In the meantime, continue to boycott as many US products as possible and do not do business with the bases.

What a joke, you want people whose livelihoods depend upon the bases to cut their own throats?

Don't do business with the bases? Hell local politicians bitch and moan about the bases, and then out of the other side of their mouth complain when the government does not give them base contracts for their cities.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

The Ospreys are deployed in a crowded area as Futenma Air Station because it is the only AS the US Marines Corps have in Okinawa. There is the largest US installation in Asia-Pacific: Kadena Air Base and it is by the beach side - but that is an US US Air Force base - you see, they don't share resources. It seems that the locals have the burden of protecting themselves from these "upgraded equipment" because the order of things within the US Military cannot be changed?

The "only" reason the area is crowded in the first place is because people made a conscious decision to build their homes and schools around the base.

By the way, as you evidently are unaware, the AF already "shares" Kadena with the AF. While combining all three air wings onto Kadena may be one solution, it would make things a hell of a lot worse for the surrounding communities for a host of reasons.

You also have no idea about the geography of Okinawa if you think Kadena is located "beach-side" as well.

Really annoying how folks who make posts like this, they THINK they know something thanks to Google Sensei, but the reality is far from it!

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

*to boycott as many US products as possible and do not do business with the bases. **Okinawans are welome to try, Im sure the marines have more than enough resources to fly and boat all their food and fuel in their bases. well see whos economy takes a dive the deepest the US taxpayer funded bases or the Okinawans economy*

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

yeah I love the big hissy fits when American planes have trouble but when a SDF Japanese plane crashes its condolences and prayers..

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

@wtf. There are maybe250 USA planes/helicopters in Japanese land, I don’t know. But there is probably 50000 Japanese planes/helicopters on Japanese land.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

I met someone the other day whose job is repairing aircraft for the US military. A good opportunity, I thought, to find out what they think about the Osprey. So I asked him what he thought about the craft. His face changed and he became serious. "It's a deathtrap," he said. "You wouldn't get me near one. I wouldn't want to work on one. Too much responsibility. It's a disaster waiting to happen."

-5 ( +9 / -14 )

met someone the other day whose job is repairing aircraft for the US military. A good opportunity, I thought, to find out what they think about the Osprey

Why would you chat with him if you dislike the US military?

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites