(also referred to as VC-61 or Fleet Air Squadron 61) is a unit in the

Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

. It is a part of the

Fleet Air Force In the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), the Fleet Air Force ( ja, 航空集団, kōkū shūdan) is its naval aviation branch, responsible for both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft and headquartered in Naval Air Facility Atsugi. As of 2012, ...

and is based at

Naval Air Facility Atsugi is a joint Japan-US naval air base located in the cities of Yamato and Ayase in Kanagawa, Japan. It is the largest United States Navy (USN) air base in the Pacific Ocean and once housed the squadrons of Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5), which ...

Kanagawa prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

. It operates LC-90 and Lockheed C-130R Hercules aircraft.

History

The squadron was founded at Atsugi Naval Air Facility on December 20, 1971 equipped with

NAMC YS-11 The NAMC YS-11 is a turboprop airliner designed and built by the Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (NAMC), a Japanese consortium. It was the only post-war airliner to be wholly designed and manufactured in Japan until the development of t ...

aircraft. In 1989 it began to operate the LC-90, and in November 2014 the unit began to operate five former Lockheed Martin KC-130R tanker aircraft of the

US Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

. They were stripped of their refueling equipment and redesigned as C-130R aircraft. In December 2014 the squadron's YS-11s were retired. The former US C-130s came into service from 2014 to 2016. In the past the squadron has also operated Grumman S-2F-U Tracker, Douglas C-27 Skytrain RFD-6 and Beechcraft B65 Queen Air aircraft.

Aircraft used

* Douglas C-27 Skytrain RFD-6 * Grumman S-2F-U Tracker * Beechcraft B65 Queen Air * YS-11M/M-A (1971-2014) * LC-90 (1989-) * Lockheed C-130R (2014-)

Gallery

File:'Japan Navy Schedule 21' Atsugi route 4 departure. (8382459963).jpg, YS-11M taking off from Atsugi (2013) File:JMSDF LC-90 (Beechcraft C-90) landing at Naval Air Facility Atsugi.jpg, LC-90 landing at Atsugi (2017) File:C-130R of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force landing at Naval Air Facility Atsugi.jpg, Lockheed C-130R landing at Atsugi (2016)

References

{{reflist Aviation in Japan Units and formations of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Military units and formations established in 1971