The RQ-4Bs operated by the 4th Reconnaissance Squadron completely relocated to Yokota AB, the place they already deployed yearly in the course of the storm season.
The U.S. Air Power completely relocated its RQ-4B World Hawks from Andersen Air Power Base (AFB), Guam, to Yokota Air Base, Japan, the 374th Airlift Wing introduced on Jun. 15, 2026. The plane are operated by the 4th Reconnaissance Squadron (4th RS), a geographically separated unit of the 319th Reconnaissance Wing (319th RW).
The plane moved there to Japan between Might 25 and 27, primarily based on the pictures launched on the DVIDS community. The unit routinely performed a summer time transfer to Yokota to seek out extra favorable climate throughout storm season, nevertheless this time it was determined to make the transfer everlasting to supply a persistent in-theater Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) help to U.S. and Allied forces within the area.
The 374th AW is the host unit at Yokota AB, which operates C-130J Tremendous Hercules with the thirty sixth Airlift Squadron and C-12J Huron with the 419th Airlift Squadron. The already oversees unmanned plane with the MQ-9 Reapers of the 319th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron primarily based at Kadena AB.
As talked about earlier, the three RQ-4B Block 40 World Hawks of the 4th RS are a well-known presence at Yokota AB due to their summer time deployments. The unit has additionally been conducting Agile Fight Employment (ACE) deployments to numerous places all through Japan, mentions the 4th RS official web page.
U.S. Pacific Air Forces has completely relocated the 4th Reconnaissance Squadron’s RQ-4 World Hawks from Guam to Yokota Air Base. The transfer improves climate resiliency throughout storm season & enhances intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance help throughout the Indo-Pacific. pic.twitter.com/OCZpVf0q5O
— Yokota Air Base (@TeamYokota) June 16, 2026
The newest press mentions that the relocation is timed with favorable climate in Japan’s Kanto area in the course of the storm season, which impacts Guam tougher. In comparison with Yokota, Andersen is additional east into the western Pacific.
“This ensures persistent reconnaissance in a area the place challenges to a free and open Indo-Pacific proceed to extend,” the assertion stated, referring to the strategic confrontations with China. PLA Navy and PLA Air Power exercise have largely concentrated within the First Island Chain proper exterior its shores round Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines with whom Beijing has a number of conflicting maritime claims.
RQ-4Bs within the Pacific
The assertion outlined the World Hawk’s mission to help the broad vary of ISR assortment missions for American, pleasant militaries and joint forces in “worldwide peacetime, contingency, and disaster operations.” Commander of the 4th RS Lt. Col. Adam Otten praised Yokota’s services for each the deployment and their households.
“Yokota Air Base is the precise location to help present and future RQ-4 operations within the theater, whereas upholding the standard of lifetime of our Airmen and households,” Otten stated. He additionally thanked Guam and the Andersen AFB group for internet hosting the World Hawk previously sixteen years. “We’re excited to be right here, and we’re assured that the unit will thrive alongside Workforce Yokota,” Otten added.
The discharge described the World Hawk as a high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE)-class Remotely Piloted aerial reconnaissance system that gives “persistent, day and evening, excessive decision, all climate imagery of enormous geographic areas with an array of built-in sensors and cameras.”
The plane can fly at an altitude of 60,000 ft for at the very least 24 hours and has Artificial Aperture Radar (SAR) and Floor-Shifting Goal Indicator (GMTI) sensors for use as an Intelligence, surveillance, goal acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) platform. That is additional enhanced by a satellite-enabled Past Line of Sight (BLOS) management hyperlink.
The 4th RS’s RQ-4Bs are managed by the 319th Operations Group, home-based at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota. The plane are launched and recovered by personnel on the deployed location, with mission management at Grand Forks taking on subsequently, the 319th OG had defined in a September 2024 launch about RQ-4B operations from Andersen AFB.
The U.S. just isn’t the one operator of the drone within the area, because the service additionally introduced on Mar. 12, 2022, the primary arrival of an RQ-4B at Japan’s Misawa Air Base, which was one of many three RQ-4B Block 30 acquired by the Japan Air Self-Protection Power (JASDF). “The addition of this plane to the Japan Air Self-Protection Power’s stock immediately helps the protection of Japan and peace and stability within the Indo-Pacific area,” stated the service.
#KeenSword25 | Misawa Elephant WalkFour USAF F-16 Combating Falcons, 4 JASDF F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters, 4 JASDF F-2s, a JASDF E-2D Hawkeye, a JASDF RQ-4B World Hawk, a U.S. Navy C-12 Huron, & a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon carried out an Elephant Stroll at Misawa AB. pic.twitter.com/CfANXoEb3G
— U.S. Forces Japan (@USForcesJapan) November 4, 2024
INDOPACOM turns into PACOM once more
Apparently, the event comes because the Division of Conflict introduced the restoration of the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) theater command’s unique designation, the Pacific Command (PACOM). President Donald Trump’s first administration launched the INDOPACOM designation in 2018, capturing India’s partnership within the general confrontation with China and encompassing the Indian Ocean Area (IOR).
Whereas the RQ-4B’s transfer to Yokota may simply be coincidental, the reversal to the unique designation is perceived as being influenced by the developments within the West Asia battle. India’s subdued but official protests over the dying of its three service provider mariners aboard the MV Settebello in a U.S. strike marks a sudden pressure in ties.
Division of Conflict Restores U.S. Pacific Command Designation.
CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii — The Division of Conflict introduced in the present day that the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) will formally restore its identify to the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM).
Initially established on… pic.twitter.com/ZL0EL3q6Ph
— U.S. Pacific Command (@USPACOM) June 16, 2026
The PACOM nevertheless talked about India as one of many areas inside its Space of Accountability (AoR). “USPACOM’s huge space of duty – spanning from the waters off the West Coast of the USA to the western border of India – stays precisely the identical. The command’s basic mission and its unwavering dedication to sustaining a free and open theater alongside regional allies and companions are unchanged,” stated the Command stated on X.
