Gen. Herbert Carlisle, commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces, indicated Monday that besides the Kadena base in Okinawa, Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo is a possible candidate site to host CV-22 Osprey transport aircraft.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Carlisle said discussions on the deployment are under way with the Japanese government and the final decision will probably be made early next year, with deployment possibly as soon as 2015.

If realized, this will be the first stationing of Ospreys outside of Okinawa. The CV-22 is the air force variant of the U.S. Marine Corps MV-22. An MV-22 squadron has been deployed to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa since last year, despite local opposition.