Defense Ministry eyes electronic warfare unit in Okinawa soon

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A Chinese Y-8 electronic surveillance aircraft flies over the East China Sea. (Provided by the Defense Ministry)


The Defense Ministry aims to eventually deploy a Self-Defense Forces unit specializing in electronic warfare to counter increasingly aggressive intelligence-gathering activities by Chinese military vessels and aircraft in waters near the Nansei island chain south of Okinawa Prefecture.


Plans calls for establishing the special unit within a Ground SDF base in Okinawa Prefecture within a few years, according to several government sources.


Defense Ministry officials are also moving to earmark some of the expenditures related to the setting up of the unit in the budget for fiscal 2021.


Electronic warfare involves not only electromagnetic waves used in communications and radar but also infrared rays needed to guide missiles.


The first special unit within the SDF will be established at the GSDF’s Camp Kengun in Kumamoto Prefecture next spring.


But the eventual plan will be to also deploy a unit to Okinawa, the nation's southernmost prefecture, as part of the SDF’s overall shift toward the Nansei island chain that lies close to China.


According to Defense Ministry sources, the Chinese military in recent years has deployed ships and aircraft for intelligence-gathering in the East China Sea where the disputed Senkaku Islands are located.

Defense Ministry eyes electronic warfare unit in Okinawa soon | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis