Apr 15 06:52 AM US/Eastern
(AP) - TOKYO, April 15 (Kyodo) — Japanese Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets were scrambled against foreign airplanes flying near Japanese airspace 299 times in fiscal 2009 through March 31, up 62 from the previous year with the jets deployed against North Korean planes for the first time in a decade, the Self-Defense Forces said Thursday.
Of the total number of ASDF scrambles, 66 percent were against Russian planes, 13 percent against Chinese, 8 percent against Taiwanese, 3 percent against North Korean and the remaining 10 percent against aircraft from other countries such as South Korea, the United States and India, according to the SDF's Joint Staff Office.
None of the planes violated Japanese airspace, it added.
ASDF jets were scrambled against planes suspected to have been dispatched by North Korea eight times around the North Korean missile launch over Japan on April 5, 2009. It was the first Japanese scrambles against planes suspected to be from the North since March according to the office.
The launch of a new flight route linking mainland China and Taiwan in July last year led to an increase in the number of scrambles against Chinese and Taiwanese civilian planes, but the figure later dropped after the ASDF began obtaining flight plans for those planes in advance.
ASDF fighter planes are on alert 24 hours a day so they can be sent airborne at a moment's notice if foreign airplanes appear likely to violate the airspace unannounced.
The Defense Ministry began compiling data on ASDF scrambles in fiscal The data showed that the number peaked at 944 in fiscal 1984 at the height of the Cold War. Over the past 10 years, the figure has hovered between about 150 and 300.
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