Aircraft at Futenma to quadruple in Korean crisis

Jan 17, 2008
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

The U.S. Marine Corps will quadruple the number of aircraft deployed at its Futenma base in Okinawa Prefecture if a military crisis erupts on the Korean Peninsula, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.

According to official documents, as many as 300 aircraft, mainly helicopters, will be deployed at the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, an increase from about 70 deployed at normal times.

The documents underscore the importance the U.S. military places on the Futenma base for air sorties into the Korean Peninsula.

The memorandums and materials for slide-show presentation obtained by The Asahi Shimbun are dated Jan. 23, 1996. That was just months before April 1996, when the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed on the return of the Futenma base to Japanese control and relocating the base's functions elsewhere in the prefecture.

The documents said the relocated facility will serve as a base for air and ground forces engaged in operations in a military crisis on the Korean Peninsula and is required to have the same military functions as Futenma's.

The Japanese and U.S. governments agreed in October 2005 to relocate the functions of the Futenma base to a new facility planned at Henoko point in Nago.

Masaaki Gabe, professor of international politics at the University of the Ryukyus, said the documents show why the Futenma base is so large, compared with the number of aircraft stationed on a full-time basis.

"The stance and plan to increase the number of aircraft (in case of emergency) will be basically the same for the planned relocated facility," Gabe said.

The documents were used by the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing stationed in Okinawa to explain the background and situation to Kurt Campbell, then deputy assistant defense secretary.

Campbell played a leading role in the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO), which was set up in autumn 1995 to look into ways of returning land used by the U.S. military and easing the American military burden on Okinawa residents.

The committee was established amid a wave of public outrage over the abduction and rape of an island schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen.

According to the documents, 300 aircraft will use the Futenma base in case of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, including the 71 normally deployed at the base.

Of the 300, 279 will be helicopter gunships and carriers, while the remaining 21 will be fixed-wing aircraft, including air-refueling tankers.

Eighty-seven aircraft will be dispatched additionally to the base while 142 will use the base for transit.(IHT/Asahi: January 17,2008)