Japan and the United States have formed a new agency to evaluate data acquired by their defence equipment, including U.S. unmanned aircraft recently deployed near the East China Sea, where China has increased military activity.
The new unit, named the US-Japan Bilateral Intelligence Analysis Cell and stationed at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo’s outskirts, was formed in November following a bilateral agreement during a Japan-US defence cabinet conference in September to collaboratively evaluate intelligence obtained by Japanese and US assets.
The assets include MQ-9 Reaper reconnaissance drones from the United States military, which were temporarily stationed at the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kanoya air base in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima in November.
The MQ-9 deployment underscores Washington’s ambitions to increase monitoring and intelligence collection around Japan’s southern Nansei island series, which includes the Japan-controlled Senkaku islands, which China also claims.
According to the Kanoya municipal authority, eight MQ-9s will be stationed at the Kanoya facility during a one-year period ending next November.
According to the Defense Ministry, the analytical team comprises of around 30 Japanese and American troops. The Japanese personnel come from the ministry’s land, sea, and air self-defense units, as well as the Defense Intelligence Headquarters, while the Americans are mostly from the US Air Force.
At the team’s inauguration event on Nov. 29 at the Yokota base, US Forces Japan Commander Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp stated that the new group “ensures strategic preparedness by strengthening mutual threat knowledge” between Japan and the US.
The two countries would “provide the largest stabilising factor in the Western Pacific” as a result of their collaborative analysis effort, he added.
According to Lt. Gen. Yasuhiko Suzuki, vice commander of the Japanese ministry’s Joint Staff, the formation of the squad “further increases the continual surveillance of unexpected acts” and “helps prevent provocative measures” in the region.
According to the ministry’s summary, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada and his US colleague Lloyd Austin agreed in September on the “priority of boosting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities” to bolster the alliance’s deterrent and reaction capabilities.
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