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Japanese island of Mageshima could become an unsinkable US aircraft carrier - Japanese island of Mageshima.jpg



 
 
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Old December 7th 19, 08:21 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Miloch
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Default Japanese island of Mageshima could become an unsinkable US aircraft carrier - Japanese island of Mageshima.jpg

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/japanese-island-of-mageshima-could-become-an-unsinkable-us-aircraft-carrier/ar-BBXSEJC?li=BBnbfcL#image=BBXSEJC_1|1

Three square miles of volcanic rock on the edge of the East China Sea may one
day be used as an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the United States Navy in the
event of war in Asia.

Japan's government announced this week that it's buying Mageshima Island, an
uninhabited outcrop 21 miles (34 kilometers) from the southernmost Japanese main
island of Kyushu.

The island, most of which is owned by a privately held Tokyo development
company, is uninhabited and hosts two intersecting unpaved runways that were
abandoned under a previous development project.

The Japanese government said the runways will be paved and used for US Navy and
Marine Corps planes to simulate aircraft carrier landings, though it did not
give a time frame in which that could be accomplished as the deal still needs to
be finalized.

But once suitable facilities are constructed, the island could also become a
permanent base for Japan's Self Defense Forces as Tokyo looks to strengthen its
position along the East China Sea, where it faces competing claims from China
over the Japanese-administered Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyu islands in
Chinese.

The "purchase of Mageshima Island is extremely important and serves for
strengthening deterrence by the Japan-US alliance as well as Japan's defense
capability," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in announcing
the deal.

US military officials in Japan said they could not comment on the purchase.

Buying Mageshima has been the subject of talks for years. Tasuton Airport, the
company that owns most of the island, finally reached agreement with the
government in late November.

The island was identified as a suitable site for use by the US as a permanent
base for field carrier landing practice under a 2011 agreement outlining the
realignment of US forces in Japan.

Spreading out US forces

The $146 million deal also comes as the US military is hearing calls to increase
the number of its strategic bases in East Asia in the face of a growing Chinese
missile arsenal.

The majority of US combat air forces in Japan are concentrated in just six
bases.

Recent studies, including one from the United States Study Center at the
University of Sydney published in August, say with their current resources the
US forces would be vulnerable to Chinese missile strikes early in any conflict.

One way to mitigate that is to spread US troops and assets out among more bases.

"Over time, the diversification of Japanese and American bases (individual or
joint) will be a trend," said Corey Wallace, an Asia security analyst at Freie
University in Berlin. "The alliance would be more resilient if bases and
hardware were more dispersed."

The theory goes, the more bases you have, the more missiles an adversary would
need to fire to overwhelm its target and gain an advantage in a combat scenario.

Permanent land bases are considered more valuable than aircraft carriers,
because they can withstand a great number of munitions. In theory, a carrier can
be taken out with a single missile or torpedo.

Battle damage to land bases can also be repaired much more quickly than a
complex war machine like an aircraft carrier.

"When you target and sink an aircraft carrier it is irreversible," said Collin
Koh, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in
Singapore.

As for an island? "At the very least it doesn't sink.... You can take the time
and effort to bring it back to operation again," Koh said.

Kinks in US-Japan defense relations

The new base is also a good sign for US-Japan defense cooperation, which has
seen strains in recent years on two fronts: Localities have put pressure on the
Japanese government to move US military activity away from population centers;
and US President Donald Trump has pushed allies like Japan to take some
financial load off US taxpayers.

On the former point, Wallace says Mageshima could eventually see operations from
US Marine Corps Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, taking some of the load off current
airfields on the main islands and Okinawa.

Just last February, Okinawa residents, in a non-binding referendum, voted
overwhelmingly that the US Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station be relocated off
the island.

That vote came after incidents of parts falling off US aircraft and landing
outside the base, including near schools and numerous flashpoints involving US
defense personnel and local residents.

Despite that vote, the Japanese government moved ahead with plans to relocate
Futenma operations elsewhere on Okinawa.

Similarly, the government could be expected to push back against any challenges
to the Mageshima plan from the nearest island of Tageshima, 8.5 miles (14
kilometers) to its east and from where it is administered.

In the larger international picture, Japan is making the right move to keep its
most important ally -- the United States -- happy, said Koh, the Singapore
analyst.

"Trump is asking Japan to pay more. This purchase of the island is a move that
is part of the whole plan to demonstrate that Japan is willing to shoulder more
burden," Koh said.

And despite the island's proximity to Tageshima, no one actually lives on it,
allowing "the (Prime Minister Shinzo) Abe government to try to balance between
its obligation towards the alliance as well as to its domestic constituents," he
said.

As a practice field, Mageshima will also be more convenient for US carrier
pilots, many of which now fly out of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni on the
Japanese main island of Honshu.

The fliers now practice carrier landings -- known as "touch and go" landings --
on Iwo Jima, also known as Iwo To, almost 850 miles (1,360 kilometers) away.
Flying to Mageshima would cut the journey by 600 miles (960 kilometers).

A chance to show new abilities

Down the line, Wallace says Mageshima could provide for some new cooperation
between the US and Japanese militaries -- specifically involving F-35 stealth
fighters.

Japan has announced it will be upgrading its Izumo-class helicopter destroyers
to handle US-made F-35B jets, fighters that now fly off American amphibious
assault ships, essentially small aircraft carriers. It's also purchasing dozens
of the short-takeoff, vertical landing jets.

"Japan does not have pilots with any experience landing fixed-wing aircraft on
carriers. However, this new facility might offer the opportunity over time for
Japanese to gain some familiarity with such operations alongside the US -- not
only to utilize their own carriers, but for cross decking (sharing) with the
United States," Wallace said.

"Having Japanese F-35s on American naval vessels would be quite a signal," he
said.



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