Outside US military aircraft use of Futenma Marine base in Okinawa surges

NAHA -- The number of takeoffs and landings at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture by military aircraft from other American bases surged by 6.5 times from April to November this year compared to the same period in 2017, according to the Defense Ministry's Okinawa Defense Bureau here.

The 753 flights in those eight months are already 1.8 times more than the total for all of last year, and have drastically pushed up noise levels in the host city of Ginowan in Japan's southernmost prefecture. Municipal officials have strongly protested the increased noise burden on residents, while the central government claims the city will get relief when aircraft are relocated from Futenma to a new base being built in the Henoko district of the city of Nago, also in Okinawa.

As many as 58 mostly rotary-wing aircraft are based at Futenma, including U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor planes. Since January this year, noisy fixed-wing aircraft from other bases began to arrive in larger numbers, while more "touch-and-go" takeoff and landing training was also conducted at the facility.

Of the 753 takeoffs and landings by outside planes, the most occurred in November with 216, according to the defense bureau. That was also the highest figure since the bureau began tracking the statistic in April 2017.

In early November, KC-135 oil tankers repeatedly conducted touch-and-go training, according to the Ginowan Municipal Government. From mid-November through mid-December, combat jets such as F/A-18s and F-35Bs also began using the base frequently. The noise in the city rose to its highest level this fiscal year on Dec. 5, at 123.7 decibels -- the kind of noise usually only observable near an operating aircraft engine.

Noise complaints from local residents filed with a city hotline also hit a record high of 73 during fiscal 2018 in November. "The aircraft are just way too noisy. Helicopters have also been making a lot of noise over the past few days," complained one resident.

The 480-hectare Futenma facility is in the middle of a residential area of Ginowan, and occupies one-fourth of the municipality's entire jurisdiction. The central government, in a bid to advance its plan to move the base to Henoko, persuaded the U.S. to move KC-130 tankers to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in the western Japan prefecture of Yamaguchi in the summer of 2014. Since 2016, some Osprey training sessions have also been moved out of Okinawa. The effect of these arrangements could be offset by the recent increase in outside aircraft coming to Futenma.

Ginowan Mayor Masanori Matsugawa visited the Okinawa Defense Bureau to lodge a written complaint with bureau chief Koichiro Nakajima on Nov. 22. "I understand that you are making efforts to ease the burden (on local residents), but with so many aircraft coming from outside, local residents do feel that their burden is growing," said Matsugawa. Nakajima emphasized that the bureau has told the American forces repeatedly to stop the fly-ins from other bases. However, the status of forces agreement between Tokyo and Washington gives free rein to the U.S. military on how to use their bases in Japan, and the Japanese side cannot do anything to change the situation for the better.

--- North Korean situation behind increase of outside aircraft: Expert

Why are more U.S. military aircraft coming to Futenma? Okinawa International University professor and Japan-U.S. security arrangement specialist Hiromori Maedomari pointed out that changes in the North Korean situation and the introduction of a new landing strip on nearby Ie Island are contributing to the surge.

Maedomari said a contributing factor is the start of a new training program with the introduction in November of the "LHD deck" landing strip, modeled on the landing deck of an amphibious assault ship, at Ie Shima Auxiliary Airfield in the northern Okinawan village of Ie.

Maedomari added that the U.S. military has beefed up the role of the Futenma base as a training hub with continuing maintenance work to prolong use of the facility. "The Japanese government has thrown away its sovereignty over the base issue. As far as the government remains this way, improvements are not coming," he said.

(Japanese original by Takayasu Endo, Naha Bureau, and Shunsuke Yamashita, Kyushu News Department)