US drones monitor China at sea.

The U.S. will use its most advanced unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to monitor Chinese activity in the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, which are claimed by Tokyo and Beijing.

The US Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft - Photo: Reuters

This information was reported on August 8th by two major Japanese media outlets, NHK and Yomiuri Shimbun. The decision to deploy the US-made Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance aircraft was agreed upon by Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto and his Pentagon counterpart, Leon Panetta, during a meeting on August 5th.

In an effort to bolster U.S. military intelligence operations in the Asia-Pacific region, since September 2010, the Pentagon has deployed at least three unarmed Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk drones to Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.

Operating at an altitude of approximately 18,000 meters, the RQ-4 is capable of providing almost instantaneous high-resolution long-range reconnaissance imagery. Last March, the RQ-4 was also used in the assessment of damage after a natural disaster at a nuclear power plant.Fukushima.

According toTaipeitimesPrior to the arrival of the American RQ-4, the Japanese navy relied primarily on P-3C "Orion" reconnaissance aircraft to monitor Chinese activity in the East China Sea.

Tetsuo Kotani, a researcher at the Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo, commented that the deployment of reconnaissance aircraft to assist Japan by the US sent a strong message to Beijing that "Washington stands with Tokyo."

However, Kotani also argued that this was by no means a provocative act by the US-Japan alliance against China, because in the current context, "no country wants to escalate tensions further."

According to TTO-M