2002 Japanese airspace violation

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2002 Japanese airspace violation
Preceding	September 11 attacks
Following	New Russian Federation uprising
Details
Date	May 23, 2002
Locations	Japan
Outcomes	Eventual development of ASF-X Shinden II

Two unidentified aircraft violated Japanese airspace in May 2002, flying over the country at low altitude before disappearing. The event was considered a failure of Japan's national defense and eventually led to the development of the ASF-X Shinden II.

Background

Following World War II, the Soviet Union (and later the Russian Federation) repeatedly violated Japanese airspace, including a Soviet electronic warfare aircraft that was intercepted in 1987. The United States Air Force, and eventually the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, named these violations "Tokyo Express" due to their regularity and how often they flew over Tokyo. After the fall of the Soviet Union, these violations reduced in number but continued to occur through 2001.

Events

On May 23, 2002, around 14:00 local time, two aircraft suddenly appeared in Japanese airspace, flying west from the Pacific Ocean. One flew over Kyushu and the other simultaneously flew over Hokkaido, the southernmost and northernmost islands of Japan, respectively. They flew at low altitude, estimated to be around 300 m (980 ft), and at supersonic speed over populated cities. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens witnessed the event, either by directly seeing the planes or hearing their sonic booms. They were last seen by a civilian fishing boat in the Sea of Japan before completely disappearing.

All countries surrounding Japan claimed to not be involved, and no terrorist organization took responsibility. Officials could not determine what bases the aircraft took off from or landed at. The lack of attribution led to wild speculation in the media, including theories on meteors, aliens, and even the existence of large submarines capable of launching aircraft.

Japan Self-Defense Force and United States radars did not detect the aircraft at all. A vague image taken by U.S. satellites confirmed the aircraft had delta wings, but any further identification was not possible.

Aftermath

The incident took place less than a year after the September 11 attacks. With the public's increased awareness of defense, many citizens pointed out that the aircraft could have easily dropped bombs. Thus, the Japanese and American governments initiated fundamental reviews of Japan's air defense system.

The incident led Taiga Heavy Industries's president to envision a new fighter aircraft to succeed Japan's aging F-4EJs. Sometime after 2003, the company began developing a new fighter aircraft that would borrow design elements from their next private airliner, the TFJ-01 GoldStar.

In the following years, Japan increased its defense spending and the U.S. military increased its presence in East Asia. Neither of these met strong opposition from neighboring countries, which some military experts took as evidence that neighboring countries were not responsible for the incident. In November 2008, the Japan Self-Defense Forces formally agreed to purchase Taiga's new fighter, the ASF-X Shinden II, for official military use.

Japanese airspace violations continued over the following years, increasing in frequency starting in March 2015. This period was said to be even more tense than that of the Tokyo Express violations. Later review saw the September 11 attacks and the 2002 airspace violation as warnings that criminal organizations such as Blatnoi would become more involved with terrorism. Blatnoi eventually funded the New Russian Federation, which directly attacked Tokyo in 2018.

The type of aircraft involved in the incident was never officially identified. The description of "unidentified delta-wing aircraft" correlates with the United States Department of Defense's initial name for the CFA-44 Nosferatu, "Uni-D" (for "Unidentified-Delta").