Ospreys deployment raises safety concerns
TOKYO — The US Air Force will deploy five Osprey transport aircraft to Yokota Air Base in the suburbs of Tokyo in October as part of a wider plan to introduce 10 of the controversial tilt-rotor aircraft to the base in the coming years, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Japan’s Defense Ministry has provided little details about the deployment, saying much of the information is classified, but it is in favor of the move as the aircraft will quickly be able to respond to events and deploy US special forces personnel if and when deemed necessary.
The ministry was quoted as saying that the move will contribute to enhancing responses by the Japan-US alliance to “various circumstances”, with the US side saying the planes will undergo a number of landing and takeoff, supply airdrop and night flying drills around the Yokota base, as reported by local media.
The deployment of the planes, which can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a fixed-winged plane, has concerned citizens across Japan due to its checkered safety record.
The concerns have been intensified by the Defense Ministry saying it plans to deploy 17 Ospreys to be utilized by Japan’s Ground SelfDefense Force at Saga Airport in Japan’s southwest.
Japanese forces have been making increased use of Saga Airport, which is predominantly a civilian airport, creating more public anger.
In terms of the residents’ justifiable concerns and in light of the planes’ less than stellar history, the planned acquisition and deployment of more Ospreys has reignited safety fears.
A US Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey made an emergency landing in Japan’s Oita Prefecture in August 2017, with a similar plane making a crashlanding off Nago in Okinawa in December 2016.
Such incidents and mishaps have done little to improve local political and public faith in the aircraft.
Further compounding the concerns, the commander of one of the US Marine Corps two MV-22 Osprey squadrons based in Okinawa was fired owing to a “loss of trust in his ability to command”, local media reported in February.
Marine Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Swenson was removed from his position commanding the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 in January, the US Marine Corps was quoted as saying in local reports.
Swenson’s high-profile removal came six months after a fatal crash of one of the squadron’s MV-22 Ospreys off Australia’s eastern coast in which three crew members were killed.