Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force Holds Largest Annual Live Ammunition Drill at Foot of Mt. Fuji

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:58 JST, May 27, 2024

The Ground Self-Defense Force held the Fuji Firepower Exercise 2024, its largest-scale annual live ammunition drill, at the East Fuji Maneuver Area in Shizuoka Prefecture on Sunday.

The GSDF’s Osprey transport aircraft participated in the drill. Flights of the aircraft had been suspended until March this year in the wake of a crash of a U.S. Osprey off Kagoshima Prefecture in November last year. The GSDF Ospreys conducted a drill to transport personnel during the exercise.

About 2,100 GSDF personnel participated in the exercise, where they confirmed actions to be taken to fight off enemy forces under the contingency they landed on a remote Japanese island.

During the exercise, 53 battle tanks and maneuver combat vehicles, 38 artilleries, 10 aircraft and about 68.4 tons of ammunition — worth about ¥840 million — were used.