The mayor of the Japanese city of Iwakuni, where the US Navy base of the same name is located, Yoshihiko Fukuda, at a meeting of the city administration, expressed consent to the deployment of American Osprey CMV22 tiltrotors.
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Osprey CMV22 tiltrotor aircraft are currently deployed at the US Yokota Base in Tokyo and the US Marine Corps Base Futenma in Okinawa. Another 17 such tiltrotors, owned by the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces, are located at the Kisarazu base in Chiba, next to Tokyo.
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The American side plans to replace a number of existing carrier group aircraft with Osprey CMV22 tiltrotors as part of the renewal of the fleet of American aircraft carriers. The carrier group’s aircraft are also based at land bases in Japan. However, the crash of one of the tiltrotors in November last year caused dissatisfaction on the part of Japanese society due to the safety problems of tiltrotors.
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“I believe that they will be operated safely. I approve of updating the models” – the mayor of Iwakuni said.
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The head of the city administration added that the safety of operation of the Osprey CMV22 is confirmed not only by the United States, but also by the Japanese government itself. He also noted that the U.S. military aircraft upgrade will reduce the number of aircraft at Iwakuni AFB by about 10 from the current number, without causing significant changes to the base’s noise levels or environment, Kyodo said.
Earlier in August, it became known that the crash of the American Osprey CV22 tiltrotor on the Japanese coast in November last year, which killed eight people, was due to a mechanical failure, which was caused by decisions of the crew made against the backdrop of a lack of information from the military about the real characteristics aircraft.
