Tokyo, Sept. 16 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force concluded on Wednesday that the Global Hawk reconnaissance drone that lost communication and went missing crashed off the western prefecture of Tottori. The ASDF will set up an accident investigation committee and continue searching for the unmanned aircraft in areas around the presumed crash site. According to the ASDF, the aircraft took off from the Misawa Air Base in the city of Misawa, Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, around 10:20 a.m. Tuesday. A communication failure occurred at 12:55 p.m. and the drone’s radar track disappeared 3 minutes later. SDF staff at the base controlled the aircraft via satellite communication. The Japan Coast Guard found part of the drone in nearby waters. The ASDF examined photographs of the drone and wreckage and concluded that the aircraft had crashed. The ASDF has not disclosed details of the drone’s mission or flight route while saying that it was on duty. Training flights of the ASDF’s Global Hawk drones have been canceled. The Misawa municipal government submitted a request to the heads of the Tohoku Defense Bureau and the Misawa base that operations and flights of the Global Hawk drones be suspended until the cause of the accident is identified. The Global Hawk, made by U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. and powered by an engine produced by Britain’s Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, costs about 17 billion yen per unit. According to the U.S. Air Force, the drone is capable of capturing images from high altitudes for many hours. The aircraft is remotely controlled at the Misawa base and can fly autonomously on routes set in advance, an ASDF official said. It also has a capability to return to a preprogramed air base and land automatically in an emergency. It can fly at altitudes of up to around 20,000 meters. The drone may become uncontrollable due to communication or mechanical failures or operation errors. A collision with another aircraft or a crash into a residential area could result in a serious accident. There have been reports of accidents involving Global Hawk drones belonging to U.S. Air Force. According to the Air Force and U.S. media, such drones crashed in California in 2017 and in waters off Spain the next year and fell into farmland in North Dakota in 2021. “Drones are indispensable to improving defense capabilities,” a senior Defense Ministry official said. “We’ll take all possible measures to ensure operational safety based on the lessons learned from this accident.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
