On Monday, in another one of those “exercising right to travel in international airspace” exercises, a Russian Il-38 maritime patrol bomber entered Japanese airspace near the northern island of Hokkaido. The Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) scrambled fighters in response, who had to use flares to persuade the Russian aircraft to leave Japanese airspace.
Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters that the Russian Il-38 plane breached Japan’s airspace above Rebun Island, just off the coast of the country’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, for up to a minute in three instances, during its five-hour flight in the area.
It came a day after a joint fleet of Chinese and Russian warships sailed around Japanese northern coasts. Kihara said the airspace violation could be related to a joint military exercise that Russia and China announced earlier this month.
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