Japanese, U.S. marines practise airborne assaults in sign of deepening cooperation -Breaking
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© Reuters. A member of the Japanese Self-Defense Force’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade takes a position while U.S. Marine Corps members get out of its MV-22 Osprey during a joint airborne landing exercise with the U.S. Marine Corps in Gotemba, west of Tokyo,2/5
Tim Kelly
TOKYO, Reuters – Amphibious Japanese troops practiced together airborne landing attacks on Tuesday as a sign that the United States and Japan are strengthening military cooperation.
Japan has revised a decade-old nation security strategy to meet China’s military assertiveness. It is likely that the upgrade of defence policy guidelines will require Japan to play a greater role in regional security alongside Washington.
On Tuesday, 400 soldiers from Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade and 600 U.S marines participated in drills at the foothills Mount Fuji. This was part of a three week joint exercise that aims to improve interoperability among allies. During the drills, Osprey tilt-rotor troop carriers were utilized.
Grant Newsham, a U.S. Marine Corps colonel and former liaison officer for Japan during the establishment of its amphibious force, said: “The true significance of this training is that both the Marines (and the ARDB) are performing serious combat training in a way that would have seemed unthinkable a generation ago.”
It demonstrates that the U.S. is more closely linked to Japan.
In 2018, Japan activated the ARDB forces. These troops, which were originally formed in order to support its defense on the southeast islands of its East China Sea border, were first deployed since World War Two.
The force, which includes around 1,500 soldiers, was trained to return captured islands with helicopters, Ospreys, and amphibious landing craft. It would be likely to be the first to respond to any Chinese invasion of Japan’s islands.
China is involved in a territorial dispute over Japan’s uninhabited islands. It routinely sends ships to claim its rights.
These joint drills come after Russia invades Ukraine, raising new security concerns in East Asia. China has been putting pressure upon Taiwan due to its crackdown against Hong Kong. Japan faces Russia’s Far East-based forces, which are becoming more cooperative with China’s army.
Moscow refers to its military operation in Ukraine as “special operations”.
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