They are now 8 (planes) to monitor the Indian Ocean and track down pirates

(B2) 3 planes from EUNAVFOR (1 Spanish, 1 French, and 1 German), 3 American planes from the CTF 151 task force based in Bahrain and 2 Japanese planes, take the count. You are there. This makes 8 planes, deployed off Somalia, on which the multinational forces can count to monitor the vast area of ​​ocean in which the pirates operate.

If for the French or the Americans, it's a bit of a routine operation, for the Japanese, it's an event. Since it leads, for the first time, the Japanese airmen out of their
territory.

On the mechanical side, everyone is equipped with planes P3 Orion... except the French who stand out with their Atlantique 2 (at the time of the photo, he was... in flight)

(Source: Bundeswehr/Christin K.)

(NGV)