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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

U.S. Marines to deploy Ospreys to Iwakuni

The U.S. Marine Corps has set out a plan to replace CH-53D large transport helicopter units currently deployed at the U.S. Marine Corps Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, with units of MV-22 Osprey, state-of-the-art vertical take-off and landing aircraft, from 2013.

According to the April 2005 Marine Corps Aviation Plan for the next ten years, the number of the CH-53D unit's helicopters will increase from eight to ten from this month, and two out of the three CH-53D units will be replaced with V-22A Osprey units in April and December 2013, respectively.

In test flights, the Osprey has crashed a number of times killing many people. A CH-53D helicopter from Iwakuni made an emergency landing in Hiroshima Prefecture, and another crashed in Okinawa in August 2004.

Underlying this is the ongoing realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, including the relocation of the carrier aircraft unit from U.S. Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Kanagawa Prefecture to Iwakuni.

Kume Keisuke, Yamaguchi Prefecture's Peace Committee secretary, criticized the U.S. plan as a scheme to consolidate Iwakuni as a sortie base for U.S. military operations in the Asia/Pacific region by drastically increasing Iwakuni base's operational capabilities. "We don't welcome defective aircraft. Such a plan must be retracted as many residents surrounding Iwakuni are opposing the realigning plan," he said. -- Akahata, October 20, 2005