Japanese fighters fire flares at Russian plane for first time in airspace violation | Japan

Japan said its fighter jets used flares for the first time to warn a Russian reconnaissance plane to leave Japanese airspace.

Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said an unknown number of F-15 and F-35 warplanes were scrambled and dropped flares on Monday after Russian aircraft apparently ignored their radio warnings.

The Russian Il-38 aircraft violated Japanese airspace over Rebun Island, off the coast of the country’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, three times during its five-hour flight in the area, Kihara said.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had asked government officials to respond “firmly and calmly” to the incident and work closely with the United States and other countries.

“We will refrain from giving any definitive information about the intent and purpose of this action, but the Russian military has been active in our country’s vicinity since the invasion of Ukraine,” Hayashi added.

“The airspace violation is extremely regrettable,” Kihara said. He said Japan had “strongly protested” to Russia through diplomatic channels and demanded preventive measures, adding: “We will carry out warning and monitoring operations while paying close attention to their military activities.”

Kihara said the use of flares was a legitimate response to the airspace violation and “we plan to use it without hesitation.”

It came a day after a joint fleet of Chinese and Russian warships sailed around Japan’s northern coast. Kihara said the airspace violation may have been linked to joint military drills announced by Russia and China earlier this month.

Japanese defense officials are deeply concerned about growing military cooperation between China and Russia, and China’s increasing activity around Japanese waters and airspace. This has prompted Tokyo to significantly bolster its defenses in southwestern Japan, including remote islands that are key to Japan’s defense strategy in the region.

Earlier in September, Russian military aircraft flew over Japan’s southern airspace. In late August, a Chinese Y-9 reconnaissance aircraft briefly violated Japan’s southern airspace.

The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, accompanied by two destroyers, sailed between Japan’s westernmost Yonaguni Island and nearby Iriomote Island, entering close to Japanese waters.

According to the Japanese military, it scrambled its jets approximately 669 times between April 2023 and March 2024, about 70% of the time against Chinese military aircraft, although this did not include airspace violations.

Japan and Russia are in a territorial dispute over a group of Russian-controlled islands that the former Soviet Union seized from Japan at the end of World War II. The dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty that would formally end their war.

With the Associated Press