Taipei Times readers may not have noticed, but for several days at the beginning of the month, there was a considerable amount of American jet fighter activity out of Okinawa. On Saturday, July 30, Ryukyu Shimpo (琉球新報) reported the unusual arrival of nine refueling tankers at Kadena Air Base (嘉手納空軍基地). Then, just after dark at 2100 hours Tuesday, August 2, eight US Air Force F-15 “Eagle” fighters flying out of Kadena flashed onto civilian aviation radar screens roughly 50 nautical miles east of Taipei. They were configured for either “combat air patrol” (CAP) or “defensive counter-air” (DCA) maneuvers. Attending these eight heavily-armed American jets were another four American KC-135 tanker aircraft farther east.
Articles