The Marine Corps will deploy two of its newest missile systems — NMESIS and MADIS — to Japan’s westernmost island for the first time this month during the large-scale Keen Sword exercise with Japanese forces.

Fewer military passengers are flying the Patriot Express, prompting the Pentagon to reduce service to Japan and eliminate several routes from Yokota Air Base starting in October.

Chinese research-vessel activity around Japan’s southwestern islands has more than tripled this year, with the Japan coast guard reporting 14 cases of ships conducting surveys in the country’s exclusive economic zone around Okinawa and its remote islands.

A recent proposal from Defense Priorities calls for ending defense alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines and adopting a non-intervention policy toward Taiwan.

An Air Self-Defense Force spokesman said by phone that the surveillance drone was not on a training mission but declined to provide details about what it was doing when it went down.

The Army’s remote Shariki Communications Site recently marked two decades of keeping an eye on the skies of East Asia for ballistic missiles that could threaten Japan, American forces or the United States.

The U.S. military did not confirm or deny a report that American officials identified two U.S. airfields on Okinawa as likely sources of PFAS contamination, while Japanese officials declined to discuss details of the reported exchange.

Staffing shortages at a U.S. Navy clinic at Sasebo Naval Base in Japan are limiting appointments for Defense Department civilians, raising concerns about access to ongoing medical care and prescriptions.

A squadron of Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II stealth fighters from South Carolina has deployed to southwestern Japan for training with U.S. and allied forces across the Indo-Pacific region.

The U.S., Japan and South Korea kicked off the Freedom Edge exercise, which incorporates air, naval and cyberspace drills designed to improve the three countries’ ability to work together against North Korean missile threats and other regional challenges.