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US Marines work on laptops inside an observation tower on Ie Shima, Okinawa, during exercise Keen Sword 25

Asia-Pacific

Keen Sword 27: Japan and the US to drill defence of the south-western islands, with 45,000 Japanese troops and missiles on Yonaguni and Ishigaki

Exercise Keen Sword 27 will run from October 19 to 29 with 45,000 Japanese personnel, 40 ships and 260 aircraft. US NMESIS and HIMARS systems are deploying to Yonaguni and Ishigaki.

Ioannis IoannisNewsroom
2 min readUpdated

US Marines on Ie Shima, Okinawa, during the previous exercise, Keen Sword 25. Archive photo, October 2024. Photo: U.S. Marine Corps / Kevin Ray J. Salvador, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain. The appearance of U.S. Department of War visual information does not imply or constitute endorsement. Cropped and converted to WebP.

Japan and the United States will hold the joint exercise Keen Sword 27 from October 19 to 29, with the emphasis on the defence of Japan’s south-western islands. The Joint Staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces announced that about 45,000 personnel, 6,100 vehicles, 40 ships and 260 aircraft will take part on the Japanese side. Figures for US participation have not been made public.

The exercise will be held at Self-Defense Forces and US military facilities, at civilian airports and ports, and in the surrounding sea and air areas. The training subjects include integrated air and missile defence, anti-ship and amphibious operations, cyber defence, operations in the electromagnetic spectrum, logistics, the dispersal of forces and the protection of critical infrastructure. On the US side, forces from all the services in the Indo-Pacific and the units based in Japan are taking part.

The deployments on the islands

Documents from Japan’s Defence Ministry on the exercise describe the deployments island by island. On Yonaguni there will be 60 personnel of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force with launchers for Type 88 surface-to-ship missiles and Type 03 medium-range surface-to-air missiles, together with 60 personnel from the US Army and the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment. The Americans will bring the NMESIS (Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System) anti-ship system, the MADIS air defence system and TPS-80 radar.

On Ishigaki, 50 Japanese personnel will deploy with Type 12, Type 88 and Type 03 missiles, along with another 60 Americans with NMESIS, MADIS and HIMARS multiple rocket launchers. On Miyako there will be 120 Marines of the 12th Regiment and 70 Japanese personnel, while on Tanegashima about 400 Marines will train alongside 1,500 personnel of the Ground Self-Defense Force.

Forces from other countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Philippines, will take part in individual parts of the exercise or follow it as observers. Keen Sword is held every two years, and the previous one took place in October 2024.

INDO-PACIFIC JAPAN JSDF Keen Sword Military Exercises USA USMC

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