According to a report from Kyodo News on December 7, the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force and the US military in Japan jointly organized two large-scale joint military exercises. Among them, the "Sakura" joint exercise held in Kumamoto Prefecture, which began nearly 40 years ago, is one of the largest US-Japan joint exercises. According to the Ministry of Defense of Japan, the two exercises are the "Sakura" joint exercise held in Kumamoto Prefecture and the "Forest Light" exercise held in Niigata and Gunma prefectures. The focus of the exercise is that Japan and the United States take countermeasures against enemy attacks on remote islands.
Among them, the "Mountain Sakura" joint exercise started on December 2 and will last until December 15. Although this is only a "tabletop exercise", there will be 4,000 soldiers and approximately 1,000 US soldiers participating. This is also one of the largest exercises held by the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force and the US military since 1982. At the media viewing ceremony of the joint headquarters of the "Sakura" exercise, Lieutenant General Ryoji Takemoto, commander of the Western Army of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, said: "For a free and open Indo-Pacific region, improving joint combat capabilities is one thing. An urgent task."
Another ongoing military exercise, "Forest Light", will continue until December 18. The Ground Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Marine Corps deployed CH-47 helicopters and V-22 tilting. Rotary wing aircraft. Z1z
Commander of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Regiment of the U.S. Marine Corps, Lieutenant Colonel Neil Berry, told Kyodo News before the start of the exercise: "We are conducting various interoperability training. Work hard to improve the ability to capture and defend critical maritime terrain. This exercise should not only give confidence to the Japanese Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Marine Corps, but also confidence to all our partners and allies in the region. We are ready to be in this region. Stand shoulder to shoulder against any sudden enemy.”
According to the US Stars and Stripes, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and US Marine Corps Commander David Berger promised when they met in Tokyo last month. A sufficiently strong army will be maintained to contain the so-called "ambitions" of China in the Western Pacific.
Kyodo News reported that the "Forest Light" joint military exercise adopted the 2018 "Expeditionary Forward Base Operations" (EABO) concept. The central idea is to disperse small-scale marines on small islands in the Pacific during military conflicts in the Pacific, forming a distributed front that can provide operational support for the US Navy, while attacking China from a distance to make China It is difficult to conduct military operations outside of mainland China.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-