Japanese Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) in QRA action

Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Marine Cpl. Ashleigh Bryant

Thanks to David Cenciotti for the heads up on this story.


Apparently in 2010 the ASDF launched 386 Quick Reaction Alert sorties against Chinese and Russian aircraft.




The Daily Yomiuri reports:

The number of Air Self-Defense Force sorties to intercept foreign aircraft flying near Japanese airspace jumped to 386 last fiscal year, up 29 percent from fiscal 2009, according to the Defense Ministry.
In the past two decades, the 2010 figure was the second-largest after the 488 sorties in fiscal 1991.

ASDF jets were scrambled to ward off planes from China 96 times, an increase of about 2.5 times from the previous fiscal year, and Russian aircraft on 264 occasions, an increase of 30 percent.

This probably explains a lot of the Russian Military Naval Aviation morse nets that get reported on UDXF so frequently.

An example of what can be heard on HF from the Ruskies:

08107.0 ---: Russian HFDF tracking & intercept net, unid chain station, 0914, A1A, w/short control routine reply to NCS "Gudok", mil unit 34608, GRU tactical coordination centre Podolsk / Klimovsk; "3k", several A1A short blocks of crypto tracking data;"75985 ä 96578k ä ä ä k", at hh:08 and hh:38 short F1B/150 databursts, Remarkable strong signal could indicate RC#210 "Shipun" at Verulantsy / Gatchina, mil unit 41480 (15/MAR/2011)(TJ)


10813.75 ---: Russian HFDF tracking & intercept net, unid northern chain station, 0810, A1A, F1B 81-81 2ch variant, 81/1000 data w/ dfsk morse/500 2 channel control feedback routines to NCS "Gudok", mil unit 34608, GRU tactical coordination centre Podolsk / Klimovsk. After data sending regular but non-scheduled A1A control feedback routines; "3k" on 10814 (15/MAR/2011)(TJ)

(Logs posted by Trond Jacobsen in South Eastern Norway).