09-07-2025
GSDF begins Osprey deployment to new camp in southwestern Japan
The Ground Self-Defense Force opened a camp in the city of Saga on Wednesday as it began work to relocate its 17 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft from a camp in eastern Japan.
The Osprey deployment from the GSDF's Camp Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, to the new camp is scheduled to be completed by mid-August.
The move is aimed at enhancing the Self-Defense Forces' quick response capability for the defense of the Nansei group of islands in southwestern Japan, amid China's increasing maritime activities.
According to the GSDF, one of the 17 Ospreys was transferred to the camp in the capital of Saga Prefecture on Wednesday. It arrived in the morning via the GSDF's Takayubaru subcamp in Kumamoto Prefecture, near Saga.
The main role of the Ospreys is to transport members of the GSDF's Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, which specializes in the defense of remote islands.
They are also mobilized to airlift emergency patients and in times of natural disasters. A GSDF Osprey was used to transport goods during a wildfire in the city of Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, in March this year.
The Defense Ministry's plan to deploy the Ospreys in Saga, adjacent to Nagasaki Prefecture, which hosts the GSDF's Camp Ainoura, the base for the amphibious brigade, initially ran into difficulties due to tough negotiations with local fisheries industries. As a result, the ministry temporarily deployed the aircraft to Camp Kisarazu in July 2020, for up to five years.
Concerns about the safety of the Osprey grew in the wake of a series of accidents. In November 2023, a U.S. Air Force Osprey crashed off the island of Yakushima in Kagoshima Prefecture. A GSDF Osprey suffered damage during a Japan-U.S. joint exercise in the town of Yonaguni in Okinawa Prefecture in October 2024.
The GSDF Osprey deployment to the Saga camp is "of extreme significance for the strengthening of the (SDF's) capability for defending remote islands," Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told a news conference Tuesday. "We'll give detailed explanations and information, including on safety."
"We are taking various measures to ensure safe Osprey operations," Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in the city of Saga on Wednesday during a stump speech for the July 20 Upper House election. "We won't cause trouble to local residents."
"The Ospreys are helpful for the defense of our country and for disaster relief because they can travel twice as fast as helicopters and three times farther," Ishiba added.
