U.S. Global Hawk Drones in East Asia
The United States military has begun to deploy RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned surveillance drones to Guam, and some in Japan see it as an important strengthening of American military power in the region:
Global Hawks have a range of 10,000 miles and will give the Air Force a reconnaissance range from Guam that stretches from Afghanistan and China to the western coast of South America.
The drones are slated to eventually replace the Cold War-era U-2 spy plane, which the U.S. military still uses in Asia.
The Air Force 12th Reconnaissance Squadron said the drones will be used to gather strategic military intelligence and lend humanitarian support, such as observing hurricanes or monitoring volcanic eruptions.
Last night, N-H-K’s evening news had a feature segment about the Global Hawk. They discussed it in the context of China’s naval expansion and its increasingly aggressive behavior in the region. Check it out (listen to the right side of your headphones for English language audio):
The report says that the primary mission of the drones will be to “keep a watch over China’s growing presence in the region.” It provides a “new level of deterrence” against China.
To help viewers understand China’s actions, they prepared a mock-up of the region with little ships representing China’s navy, which may soon include an aircraft carrier:
There are two lines that China considers important for its defense strategy. In the past, the Chinese navy mostly stuck to the area within the pink line, but more recently they have become active within the orange line areas. The news caster reminds viewers that China’s naval expansion has included actions such as the buzzing of Japanese ships by Chinese helicopters.
It is said that China is expanding its naval power because of its desire to obtain natural resources. It just isn’t a Sino-Japanese issue either: China has been quite aggressive in pursuing its maritime territorial claims against Vietnam. in the last two years, at least 10 Vietnamese fishing vessels were seized by China. The ships are confiscated by the Chinese and the Vietnamese are forced to pay heavy fines. A couple Vietnamese fishermen are shown talking about how the Chinese beat them and threatened them with guns. In contrast, Japan has been quite lenient towards Chinese fishermen and fishing boats that intrude into Japanese waters.
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