China's new Wing Loong-10 surveillance and strike drone is photographed west of northern Okinawa, May 27, 2024. (Japan Air Self-Defense Force)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Japanese fighter jets have scrambled to intercept a Chinese surveillance and strike drone seen operating for the first time north of Okinawa.
A Wing Loong-10 was spotted Monday over the East China Sea by members of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, according to a statement that day from the country’s Ministry of Defense.
The drone was initially clocked heading east, as if it were traveling from mainland China, the statement said. After flying over waters west of Amami Oshima, the drone appeared to reverse course back toward its homeland.
It did not violate Japanese airspace, the statement said.
Red marks show where China's new Wing Loong-10 surveillance and strike drone was spotted over the East China Sea, May 27, 2024. (Japan's Joint Staff)
A spokesman for Japan’s Joint Staff declined to say by phone Tuesday which type of fighters had been dispatched.
The Wing Loong-10 is a medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, developed by Chengdu Aircraft Design & Research Institute, a division of the Aviation Industry Corp. of China, according to the AirForce Technology website on Feb. 2, 2021. It was unveiled at the Nanchang Airshow in November 2020.
“China is rapidly developing a variety of domestic unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) UAVs for reconnaissance and other purposes as well as those capable of carrying weapons such as missiles,” said an annual white paper issued last year by Japan’s Ministry of Defense. “It is suggested that the Chinese Air Force has created a UAV unit for attack missions and frequently used UAVs for reconnaissance and other purposes in waters and airspace surrounding China.”
China in recent years has stepped up challenges to its neighbors’ maritime claims in the East and South China seas. Its coast guard frequently enters waters around the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military is growing its drone presence in the area by deploying MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance aircraft to Okinawa, according to the Japanese government. The Guam-based Tritons will fly out of Kadena Air Base until October.
Those drones will “conduct intelligence missions in the Nansei region and its surrounding areas, strengthening surveillance and reconnaissance,” a spokeswoman for Okinawa prefecture’s Military Base Affairs Division told Stars and Stripes by phone earlier this month.
The Nansei islands stretch from Kyushu — the southernmost of Japan’s main islands — to Taiwan.
