U.S. planning to deploy F-35 at Japan base [View all]

[unhappycamper]

http://www.upiasia.com/Top-News/2012/12/19/US-planning-to-deploy-F-35-at-Japan-base/UPI-99411355898668/

U.S. planning to deploy F-35 at Japan base
Published By United Press International

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- The United States is laying the groundwork for the first overseas deployment of the F-35 stealth fighter at its Japan base, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

The deployment of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at the U.S. Air Force base in Iwakuni in Japan by 2017 will be part of the new policy of enhancing U.S. presence and capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region, Panetta said in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.

Explaining the new U.S. defense strategy as its wars wind down in Afghanistan and Iraq, Panetta said the effort will be to maintain force projection in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.

The enhancement of presence and capabilities in Asia-Pacific includes "reallocating the naval fleet to achieve in these next few years a 60/40 split between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans -- hopefully, we will do that by 2020 -- increasing Army and Marine presence in the region after Iraq and Afghanistan, locating our most advanced aircraft in the Pacific, including new deployments of F-22s and the MV-22 Ospreys to Japan, and laying the groundwork for the first overseas deployment of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Iwakuni in 2017," Panetta said.