An Osprey aircraft from the Ground Self-Defense Force took part in the Fuji Firepower Exercise 2024 on Sunday.
15:58 JST, May 27, 2024
The Ground Self-Defense Force held the Fuji Firepower Exercise 2024, the largest annual live ammunition exercise, on Sunday at the East Fuji Maneuver Area in Shizuoka Prefecture.
The GSDF’s Osprey transport aircraft took part in the exercise. Flights on the plane were suspended until March this year following the crash of an American Osprey near Kagoshima Prefecture in November last year. The GSDF Ospreys conducted a personnel transport exercise during the exercise.
About 2,100 GSDF personnel took part in the exercise, where they confirmed the need to take actions to repel enemy forces in the event they landed on a remote Japanese island.
During the exercise, 53 main battle tanks and maneuver fighting vehicles, 38 artillery, 10 aircraft and approximately 68.4 tons of ammunition – worth approximately ¥840 million – were used.
