ASDF

The squadron, part of the Air Self-Defense Force, will monitor space debris and suspicious satellites to prevent collisions with Japanese satellites.

Japan will launch its first space operations unit within the Air Self-Defense Force on May 18 to monitor threats to Japanese satellites in outer space, Defense Minister Taro Kono has said. The Space Domain Mission Unit will be tasked with tracking space debris and meteorites ...

Two Air Self-Defense Force planes arrived at an air base on the outskirts of Sydney on Thursday to assist in fighting unprecedented and deadly bush fires across the country. ASDF Col. Masashi Ota, who is leading the mission, told reporters upon arrival that he is ...

Japan's Blue Impulse aerobatics team will draw the five Olympic rings in the sky with colored smoke at a ceremony in March to mark the arrival of the sacred flame from Greece, a source said Friday. The 2020 Tokyo Organising Committee has decided that the ...

Two U.S. B-52 heavy bombers made a rare training flight with the Air Self-Defense Force over the Sea of Japan last week, in a mission that likely comes in response to a spate of North Korean short-range missile tests over the last several months. The ...

The Air Self-Defense Force carried out a quick deployment drill for its Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, missile interceptors in Tokyo on Wednesday, in order to maintain readiness for missile defense operations. The drill, held at the Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park, followed a series ...

The Air Self-Defense Force concluded Friday that the April crash of an F-35A stealth fighter in the Pacific Ocean was caused by "spatial disorientation" on the part of the pilot and not by any mechanical problem. The conclusion is in line with an interim investigative ...

The Defense Ministry resumed flights of Air Self-Defense Force F-35A stealth fighter jets Thursday afternoon, having suspended them since a fatal crash in April, the first ever reported for the aircraft. In June, the ministry concluded that the crash of an F-35A into the Pacific ...

Remains of the pilot of an Air Self-Defense Force F-35A stealth jet fighter that went missing off Aomori Prefecture on April 9 have been retrieved from the ocean, Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said Friday. The remains were found Wednesday and identified as those of Maj. ...