The new team, based at the Yokota Air Base in the suburbs of Tokyo and dubbed the US-Japan Bilateral Intelligence Analysis Cell, was set up in November following a bilateral agreement at a Japan-US defense ministerial meeting in September to jointly analyze information acquired by Japanese and US assets, Japan Times reported.
The assets include the US military’s MQ-9 Reaper reconnaissance drones, which went into operation at the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kanoya air base in Kagoshima Prefecture in November on a temporary basis.
The MQ-9 deployment reflects Washington’s efforts to beef up its surveillance and intelligence-gathering activities near Japan’s southwestern Nansei island chain, which includes the Japan-controlled Senkaku islets.
Over a one-year period through next November, eight MQ-9s in total are expected to be stationed at the Kanoya base, according to the municipal government of Kanoya.
RHM/PR
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