U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk Arrives at Air Base in Aomori Pref.

June 5, 2018

Tokyo- An RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone of the U.S. Air Force arrived at Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, late last week as the first in a temporary deployment of six Global Hawks there, according to U.S. Forces Japan sources.

The Global Hawk landed at the Misawa base on Friday. It came from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

The drones, remotely operated from the U.S. mainland and capable of long-time high-altitude flights, are believed to be used for gathering information on North Korea and the Chinese military.

The aircraft's temporary relocation to Misawa from the Guam base, seen until around autumn, is aimed at preventing their operations from being affected by typhoons that may hit the U.S. island.

For similar reasons, Global Hawks were temporarily stationed at the Misawa base in 2014 and 2015, and at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo last year. Jiji Press