Japan probes first Global Hawk crash, says surveillance missions will continue

TOKYO — The loss of one of Japan’s three RQ-4B Global Hawk surveillance drones will not hamper Self-Defense Force operations, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Tuesday as investigators examined the country’s first crash of the unmanned aircraft.

The Global Hawk took off from Misawa Air Base in northeastern Japan at 10:20 a.m. Tuesday and disappeared from radar at 12:58 p.m. about 30 miles north of Tottori prefecture, according to a Japan Air Self-Defense Force news release that day.

“The Self-Defense Forces are maintaining the necessary operational posture to ensure that the execution of our missions is not impeded,” ministry spokesman Kimihito Aguin said at a news conference Tuesday evening.

Ships and aircraft spotted floating debris shortly after the Global Hawk disappeared, and the wreckage was subsequently identified as belonging to the drone, according to the Air Self-Defense Force release.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

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

Some Japanese government officials must speak to the media without providing their names.

The drone was one of three Japanese Global Hawks, all assigned to the Airborne Warning and Control Wing at Misawa. The cost of all three aircraft was about $450 million, according to the Ministry of Defense. Japan received the drones between March 2022 and June 2023.

The Global Hawk is a high-altitude, long-endurance surveillance drone capable of flying at about 60,000 feet and observing objects more than 340 miles away, according to manufacturer Northrop Grumman.

Misawa, which also hosts the U.S. Air Force’s 35th Fighter Wing, previously supported rotational deployments of American Global Hawks.

Tokyo announced May 28 that three Air Force Global Hawks and about 150 airmen from the 4th Reconnaissance Squadron and 319th Operations Group would relocate from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo. U.S. officials later said the move would be permanent.