US wants to keep rocket launchers at frontline Japanese base at edge of East China Sea

General Charles Flynn, commander of the US Army in the Pacific, stated that even after the joint training they were employed in, he is not in a hurry to remove rocket launchers and other equipment from a Japanese army camp on the edge of the East China Sea.

He told Reuters during a visit to the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force facility on Amami Oshima, a group of islands extending toward Taiwan, on Thursday that "some of the equipment we are just going to leave here" until the following joint exercises. It's a chance for us to continue improving our capabilities, he continued.

The equipment might stay in Amami for a few more months because there are two more joint training exercises planned for this year. It contains two High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which Washington has also handed to Ukraine to aid it in its conflict with Russia and are capable of firing projectiles as far as 500 km (310 miles).

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As tensions with China over Taiwan rise, using training exercises like the recently concluded Orient Shield drill could be a simple and rapid option for Washington to redeploy some forces in East Asia, even if only briefly.

Camp Amami, which was inaugurated in 2019, is one of a number of military camps Japan is constructing on its southwest islands for anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile units in an effort to fend off any attack from China.

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General Yoshihide Yoshida, the head of staff of the Japanese army, accompanied Flynn to Amami. His visit coincides with Tokyo's plans to strengthen its armed forces in response to what it perceives as an increasing threat from China and Russia following Moscow's attack on Ukraine.

It disclosed a plan to equip longer-range missiles last month as part of a significant increase in defence spending that will also raise funding for joint exercises with American soldiers.

(with inputs from agencies)