DTN News - JAPAN DEFENSE NEWS: ASDF Monitoring Senkakus 24 Hours A Day / Radar-Equipped Aircraft Deployed In Bid To Prevent Intrusions By Chinese Planes
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 28, 2013: The Self-Defense Forces have been keeping around-the-clock surveillance over airspace around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, dispatching radar-equipped aircraft in a bid to prevent intrusions by Chinese airplanes.
Air Self-Defense Force aircraft were dispatched to Okinawa Prefecture after a Chinese airplane intruded into Japanese airspace on Dec. 13, when the ASDF failed to promptly scramble fighters as a ground radar in the area was unable to detect the low-flying plane.
On Jan. 15, the ASDF scrambled fighters to the Senkaku Islands after a propeller-driven airplane belonging to China's State Oceanic Administration flew about 120 kilometers north of Kubajima, one of the islets.
If the airplane had flown at 300 kph, it would have taken just 20 minutes or so to intrude into Japanese airspace at a distance of 22 kilometers from the island.
The Jan. 15 scramble was one of seven ordered by the ASDF since the airplane belonging to the Chinese agency intruded into Japanese airspace on Dec. 13. The other six occurred on Dec. 22, 24, 25 and 26, and on Jan. 5 and 11. Each time, Chinese aircraft came close to 100 kilometers of entering Japanese airspace.
The ASDF has scrambled fighters against Chinese aircraft in the East China Sea and its surrounding areas 160 times from April to December last year, already surpassing the 156 times recorded in fiscal 2011.
During such operations, China's airborne early warning planes and other kinds of military aircraft were often spotted, according to ASDF officials.
(Read complete story on Defense-Technology News - Click on link undermentioned)
http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.ca/2013/01/dtn-news-japan-defense-news-asdf.html
