U.S. asks Japan to fly AWACS aircraft to protect spy planes

Japan Policy & Politics, March 25, 2003

WASHINGTON, March 19 Kyodo

The U.S. military has asked the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to fly E-767 airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft over the Sea of Japan to help protect U.S. planes engaged in reconnaissance missions against North Korea, U.S. administration sources said Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Waskow, commander of the U.S. forces in Japan, made the request at a meeting Sunday in Tokyo with Adm. Toru Ishikawa, chairman of the SDF's Joint Staff Council, the sources said.

Japan plans to accept the U.S. request, Japanese sources said.

On March 2, four North Korean MiG fighters intercepted a U.S. Air Force RC-135S reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Sea of Japan, about 240 kilometers off North Korea's eastern coast.

In response to the incident, the U.S. military began flights of its own AWACS aircraft but decided to ask for cooperation from the SDF as North Korea may escalate provocative actions while the United States focuses on Iraq, they said.

The SDF currently has four AWACS planes and they can share information with U.S. military aircraft and vessels.

The Japanese government thinks exchanges of general information between the SDF and the U.S. military do not violate Japan's self-imposed ban on the use of its right to collective self-defense, or the right to help allies under foreign attack.

Flights of AWACS aircraft by the SDF to help U.S. reconnaissance planes, however, would effectively constitute a joint operation between the SDF and the U.S. military.

There is a possibility that the U.S. military could become involved in a fighting with North Korean fighters, based on information obtained from SDF AWACS planes.