Abe ramps up Japan's defence capabilities with Osprey military aircraft

Tokyo is pushing ahead with a US$3 billion purchase of V-22 Osprey transport aircraft from the US, the latest enhancement in Japan's military capabilities.

Less than a week after Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, returned from a state visit to Washington, the US government has informed Congress that a deal for 17 of the advanced tilt-rotor aircraft is progressing. Japan anticipates being able to deploy the Ospreys from 2019.

The Defence Security Cooperation Agency said the aircraft will "greatly enhance the Japan Ground Self-Defence Force's humanitarian and disaster relief capabilities".

The Japanese government has indicated that the Osprey will be stationed in Saga, in southwest Japan, and will be on call for a new 680-man brigade that is being formed in nearby Nagasaki Prefecture and given the specific task of being able to assault and recapture a remote part of Japan's territory.

Tokyo has been careful not to specify what that territory might be, but there is little doubt that the government in Tokyo is bolstering its abilities to deter a Chinese grab for the disputed Senkaku Islands, which Beijing claims as its sovereign territory and refers to as the Diaoyus.

Should deterrence fail, the new unit will be trained to recover the uninhabited archipelago, the western-most part of Okinawa Prefecture.

The purchase of the Ospreys - with a top speed of 530 km/h, almost double the speed of present transport helicopters, and a range of 3,900km, five times that of the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter - coincides with the announcement the Defence Ministry will station as many as 600 troops on Miyako and Ishigaki islands, also in western Okinawa.