Japan Air Self-Defense Force members watch the arrival of the country's first F-35A Lightning II at Misawa Air Base, Japan, Jan. 26, 2018. (Deana Heitzman/U.S. Air Force)
Japanese F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters are set to train for the first time with American and Australian F-35s in the skies over Guam, according to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
For two weeks, the fifth-generation fighters will practice joint operations over a vast area for Cope North, a large-scale drill next month, said Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, the service’s chief of staff.
“Also, this will be a good opportunity to train how to deal with opponents with the same capabilities,” he told reporters at a press conference Thursday.
Cope North is scheduled Feb. 3-21 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Pacific Air Forces said in a statement Monday.
The exercise focuses on air combat and large-force employment to enhance the stealth fighters’ ability to work together, the statement said.
Fifth-generation fighters like the F-35 and the F-22 Raptor can move at supersonic speeds and boast radar-evading designs, high-tech sensors and networking technology.
Cope North will be based on a “contemporary scenario,” PACAF stated, without elaborating further.
The U.S., Australia and Japan are gearing up to deter Chinese aggression over contested territory in the South China Sea and East China Sea and around Taiwan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has stated his intent to reunite the self-governing and democratic island with the mainland, by force if necessary.
“The U.S., Australian, and Japanese air forces serve as the trilateral exercise leads, establishing command and control and organizing training for the multinational task force,” the PACAF statement said, without listing other nations involved in the task force.
PACAF was preparing to release additional information about the exercise, a spokeswoman for Andersen’s 36th Wing, 1st Lt. Ariana Wilkinson, said by phone Tuesday.
Last year, around 1,700 U.S. airmen, sailors and Marines joined the training, along with 700 troops from Australia, Canada, France, South Korea and Japan.
The Australian Defence Force, in an unsigned email Tuesday, said it may release information about Cope North by next week.
Japan has 39 F-35As deployed to Misawa Air Base in northeast Japan, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters Friday.
The country is sending six F-35As, two E-2D Advanced Hawkey command and control planes and a KC-46A Pegasus tanker to Cope North, the Air Self-Defense Force announced on its website a day earlier.
The planes are from Japan’s 3rd Air Wing and the Airborne Warning and Control Wing at Misawa and the 3rd Tactical Airlift Group at Miho Air Base in the country’s southwest, according to the statement.
“We share universal values and strategies with the U.S. and Australia, and through this exercise we can show the strong ties between the three countries, to ensure peace and stability in the region, and will help to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Uchikura said Thursday.
Cope North started in 1978 at Misawa as a quarterly exercise between the U.S. and Japan. The training moved to Guam in 1999, and brought the Australian air force into the fold in 2012. Other U.S. allies, including New Zealand and the Philippines, have participated intermittently.
