TOKYO, May 30 – A U.S. Air Force unit operating Global Hawk surveillance drones will be relocated from Andersen base in Guam to Yokota Air Base in Tokyo beginning this summer, Japanese Defense Ministry officials said Friday.
Three RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and about 150 personnel are expected to move to the U.S. air base in western Tokyo in phases, with no new facilities planned for the deployment, they said.
The high-altitude, long-endurance drones are capable of wide-area surveillance and long-range intelligence gathering.
They have previously been deployed temporarily to Yokota Air Base and Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan.
According to the Japanese ministry, the U.S. military said the relocation is intended to strengthen intelligence-gathering and surveillance activities around Japan by improving operational efficiency and rapid-response capabilities amid the current regional security environment.
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