The Ministry of Defense announced that the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft deployed at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma (Ginowan, Okinawa), will conduct low-altitude training flights over four prefectures in Kyushu between Mar. 6 and 8. Called the Yellow Route, the Kyushu training route is one of six routes over the Japanese mainland, marking the first training flights of the Osprey outside of Okinawa. The route will pass over Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Oita and Miyazaki. According to the Kyushu Defense Bureau, three Ospreys will fly from Futenma to Iwakuni Air Base in Yamaguchi prefecture before flying the training route. The aircraft will fly as low as 150m, and some of the flights will be held at night, but no later than 10PM. The training routes will supposedly avoid highly populated areas, historical sites and nuclear power plants. When asked for a comment, Fukuoka Prefecture said it was not aware of the actual route and would refrain from commenting until the Ministry of Defense confirms the route with the U.S. armed forces. Low-altitude flights are conducted to provide pilots with practice avoiding radar detection. The other planned routes are Aomori ~ Fukushima, Aomori ~ Yamagata, Niigata ~ Gifu, Wakayama ~ Ehime and Amami Islands ~ Tokara Islands. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun, Mar. 5
