The government plans to start construction of an airfield and other related facilities in fiscal 2022 on Mageshima island in Kagoshima Prefecture, a planned site to relocate the field carrier landing practice (FCLP) needed for U.S. carrier-based aircraft, government sources have said.
The construction work is expected to last three years and be completed by the end of fiscal 2024. The FCLP strip is expected to become operational as early as fiscal 2025 after finalizing an agreement between Japan and the United States.
U.S. carrier-borne aircraft, which are based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture, are an essential part of U.S. forces to counter threats from China and North Korea. The Japanese government hopes to strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of Japan and the United States by establishing at an early date a permanent training environment to maintain carrier pilots' skills.
Mageshima, part of the city of Nishinoomote, is an uninhibited island located about 12 kilometers west of Tanegashima island in the prefecture and measures about 8 square kilometers.
In November, the government signed a contract worth about 16 billion yen with a Tokyo-based development company, which owns most of the island, to sell the island to the central government in stages. The government has already acquired more than 60% of the land and hopes to complete the transfer of ownership early next year.
The Defense Ministry plans to carry out geological surveys and measurements in late January at the earliest to develop the facilities. It also will assess the environmental impact on animals and plants from the next fiscal year. The ministry included 500 million yen as related expenses for the project in the fiscal 2020 budget plan.
The environmental assessment will finish in about two years, and construction of an airfield, control tower and communication facilities will begin in fiscal 2022. Japan and the United States are expected to agree at a joint committee meeting to build a 100 personnel-strong Air Self-Defense Force "Mageshima Station" (tentative name) on the island for use of U.S. forces.
FCLP operations are expected to start at the new location in fiscal 2025, and be conducted for about 10 days each time about once or twice a year.
U.S. forces have conducted FCLPs on Iwoto island, part of Tokyo, since 1991 due to noise issues at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, which is located in a densely populated area in Kanagawa Prefecture. The transfer of all the 60 or so planes belonging to the U.S. carrier air wing from the Atsugi base to Iwakuni was completed by March 2018.
As a result, however, Iwakuni is about 1,400 kilometers from the FCLP field on Iwoto, meaning 200 kilometers further than the distance between Atsugi and Iwoto. To ensure the safety of its pilots, the U.S. side asked for a practice site located closer to the base. In June 2011, the Japanese and U.S. governments selected Mageshima, about 400 kilometers from Iwakuni, as a candidate site for FCLP operations.
The Japanese government is also considering making use of Mageshima for reducing Okinawa Prefecture's burden of hosting military bases by transferring the training site for Ospreys deployed to U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture to the Kagoshima island.
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