The first F-35B Lightning II landed on Japanese big-deck JS Kaga (DDH-184) on Sunday off California. Meanwhile, the U.S Navy and Royal Canadian Navy on Sunday conducted a joint transit of the Taiwan Strait while a Chinese bomber on the same day carried out flight circuits over the waters south of Japan’s Yaeyama Islands and east of Taiwan.
On Monday, the JMSDF posted on its X social media account Kaga had held the first landing of the F-35B.
“We are conducting tests with support from U.S. Navy and USMC to collect the necessary data for F-35B operations on the Izumo-class destroyer,” reads the English-language post.
The F-35B that landed on Kaga was a U.S. test aircraft assigned to the “Salty Dogs” Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23). Kaga’s shipboard trials are only the second ones carried out by the JMSDF with F-35Bs. On Oct. 3 2021, Kaga’s sister ship JS Izumo (DDH-183) hosted two F-35Bs from the “Bats” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 242 (VMFA-242) based at Marine Corps Station Iwakuni, Japan.
Kaga left its homeport Kure Naval Base on Sept. 17, arrived in San Diego on Oct. 5 and then left on Saturday to begin the trials, which are expected to wrap up before Nov. 18, according to a JMSDF release in September.
The F-35 Patuxent River Integrated Test Force (Pax ITF), which is responsible for testing all seagoing F-35 variants and comprised of personnel from the U.S Navy and Marine Corps, Royal Air Force, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace, Northrop Grumman and U.S. government civilian personnel, posted a release on Monday stating that. The landing was the beginning of developmental tests for Kaga, stated the release, and a test pilot flew a specially instrumented F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing variant and touched down at about 3:15 p.m.
F-35Bが現地時間10月20日15時ごろ、初の着艦に成功!!🛩⚓ @USNavy @USMC
矩形の飛行甲板となった護衛艦「#かが」は #F35B の艦上運用に必要な諸元を収集するため、🇺🇸サンディエゴ沖にて米海軍及び米海兵隊の支援を得て所要の試験を実施中です!#自由で開かれたインド太平洋 pic.twitter.com/ar7tVYhSEc
— 防衛省 海上自衛隊 (@JMSDF_PAO) October 21, 2024
The sea trials prove out Kaga’s recent modifications host F-35s, the statement reads. The modifications include painting its flight deck with heat-resistant material that tolerates the F-35B’s vectored-thrust engines, installing lights for nighttime operations and reshaping the flight deck’s bow from a trapezoid into a rectangular shape.
“This test is essential for strengthening Japan’s defense capabilities and is of utmost importance. We will do our best to achieve good test results together with the ITF,” said JMSDF Capt. Shusaku Takeuchi, commanding officer of Kaga, in the release.
“It also improves the interoperability between Japan and the U.S., strengthening the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. alliance, thereby contributing to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The F-35 is detached from VX-23, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland and joins a test team from the F-35 Pax ITF, which embarked on Kaga in San Diego, according to the release. The sea trials are scheduled to take approximately three weeks.
Meanwhile on Sunday, destroyer USS Higgins (DDG-76) and RCN frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH331) carried out a Taiwan Strait transit. This marks the second time the ships have conducted a Taiwan Strait transit together, having done so previously in September 2022. The U.S. Navy and RCN last carried out a joint Taiwan Strait transit in November 2023. A 7th Fleet release stated the two ships conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on Sunday through waters in which high-seas freedom of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law, adding that the ships transited through a high seas corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state.
“Higgins and Vancouver’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the United States’ and Canada’s commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle. The international community’s navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited. The United States rejects any assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that is inconsistent with freedoms of navigations, overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea and air,” read the release.
A social media post on X, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense stated that the ships traveled the Strait from north to south. Canada, as of press time, has not issued any release on the transit, but the Canadian Joint Operations Command posted on social media that “HMCS Vancouver with USS Higgins conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait. Our activities promote peace, resilience, and security in the IndoPacific.”
China has condemned the transit, with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command stating that Higgins and Vancouver transited the Taiwan Strait on Sunday and “hyped it up publicly,” according to a China Military Online report. The report also said that Senior Captain Li Xi, spokesperson for the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command, slammed the provocative move in a statement released on Monday. Li said the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command had organized naval and air forces to track and monitor the U.S. and Canadian ships during the transit, and handled the situation according to law and regulations.
“The actions of the U.S. and Canada have disturbed the situation and undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said Li, adding that the troops of the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command remain on high alert to safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability.
In a Monday press conference, China Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian stated that the Eastern Theater Command has already responded to the U.S. and Canadian warships and emphasized that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. “The Taiwan issue is not an issue of freedom of navigation, but an issue concerning China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. China firmly opposes any country provoking or threatening China’s sovereignty and security in the name of freedom of navigation,” said Lin according to an official transcript.
In other developments on Sunday, Japan’s Joint Staff Office (JSO), issued a release stating that from the morning to the afternoon of that day, a single Chinese Y-9 electronic intelligence aircraft and a single H-6 bomber flew separate flights from the East China Sea, passing between Okinawa and Miyako Island to reach the Philippine Sea. The aircraft then circled over before later turning around and passing between Okinawa and Miyako Island again to return to the East China Sea. In response, fighter jets from the Southwestern Air Defense Command of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) were scrambled. The JSO release included a map showing the flight path of both aircraft with the circuits conducted in separate locations over the waters south of Japan’s Yaeyama Islands and east of Taiwan.