In a rare occurrence, the United States deployed two missile-tracking aircraft to an air base in the Western Pacific Ocean amid reports of a possible Chinese war game targeting Taiwan.
According to data captured by the aircraft tracking service Flightradar24, a U.S. Air Force RC-135S reconnaissance aircraft, capable of collecting optical and electronic data on ballistic missiles, on Thursday arrived at Kadena Air Base on Japan's island of Okinawa.
An open-source intelligence analyst active on X (formerly Twitter), @MeNMyRC1, who tracks American spy planes, said this is the second missile-tracking aircraft, also known as Cobra Ball, stationed at Kadena. The first aircraft last flew from the base on November 25.
The reinforcement of the Cobra Ball came amid persistent tensions between China and Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing views as part of its territory despite never having governed it. With a distance of 370 miles, Kadena is the closest U.S. air base to Taiwan.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that intelligence showed the chances of China staging drills around Taiwan this weekend were "high." In August 2022, the Chinese military conducted precision strikes by firing ballistic missiles into waters near the island during a war game.
Besides, China in late September launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, in the first such test since the 1980s. The nuclear-capable missile was fired from the southern Chinese province of Hainan and its dummy warhead splashed down in the South Pacific Ocean.
"If both [aircraft] remain at Kadena, it would be unusual but not especially so," the analyst told Newsweek. In February, March, May, June, and July of 2023, Kadena hosted two Cobra Balls, which were repositioned to Alaska for a couple of weeks during that time.
According to the U.S. Air Force, there are three RC-135S aircraft in active service, which are all permanently based at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and operated by the 55th Wing. Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Pacific Air Forces for comment by email.
The second Cobra Ball sent to Kadena has a serial number of 62-4128. It left Offutt on Tuesday and made a stopover in Hawaii as it landed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, according to Flightradar24's data. The aircraft departed for Okinawa the following day.
The first Kadena-based Cobra Ball, 61-2662, was tracked stationing in Alaska in mid-September, before being retasked to the Western Pacific Ocean for deployment at Kadena.
Tracking data showed the 61-2662 aircraft had conducted spying missions in anticipation of Chinese and North Korean missile launches in October and November, when it flew over the Philippine Sea and the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea in South Korea.
Data collected by the Cobra Ball, which is rapidly deployable and capable of providing vital information that cannot be obtained by other sources, is critical to the development of America's strategic defense and theater missile defense concepts, the U.S. Air Force said.
Both the Chinese Defense Ministry and the North Korea's embassy in Beijing, the capital city of China, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment from Newsweek.
Meanwhile, the third Cobra Ball, 61-2663, remained at a facility of the defense contractor L3Harris in Greenville, Texas, for "programmed depot maintenance," @MeNMyRC1 confirmed to Newsweek. The aircraft was tracked flying to the facility in late September.
L3Harris has regularly maintained and modified the Cobra Ball fleet to keep pace with the changing mission and global navigation requirements, the company said in February 2022.
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