A Japan Air Self-Defense Force RQ-4B Global Hawk crashed into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday, September 15, about 31 miles (50 kilometers) north of Tottori Prefecture. It is the first loss of the high-altitude surveillance drone since Japan put the type into service in 2022.

The ASDF won’t say what the aircraft was doing. Gen. Takehiro Morita, the service’s chief of staff, said only that it was not a training flight. Each of Japan’s three Global Hawks carries a price tag of about ¥17 billion ($110 million).

The drone left Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture at 10:20 a.m. A problem with its communications equipment began around 12:55 p.m., and radar lost the aircraft at 12:58 p.m. over international waters, according to the ASDF timeline reported by Stars and Stripes and Japanese broadcasters.

A Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel and ASDF fighters spotted floating debris starting around 2:19 p.m. The ASDF judged from photographs that the wreckage was the drone, The Japan Times reported. No injuries or damage have been reported. The service also won’t disclose the exact crash point, citing protection of the aircraft’s secrets, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.

The Global Hawk is designed to fly itself to a preset airfield if its link drops, a Defense Ministry source told broadcaster ANN. The ASDF is investigating whether that autonomous function failed.

Japan Paid $1.2 Billion for Three Northrop Grumman Drones

Japan bought the three RQ-4Bs from the United States in 2015. The estimated $1.2 billion package covered equipment, parts and logistics support, and operating costs have pushed the real bill higher. Japan received the aircraft between March 2022 and June 2023 and based all three at Misawa.

Northrop Grumman builds the Global Hawk to fly at about 60,000 feet (18,300 meters). Japan’s version spans 131 feet (40 meters) and can stay aloft for more than 30 hours. A Defense Ministry spokesman said the loss won’t stop the Self-Defense Forces from carrying out their missions, but Japan now watches the Sea of Japan with two aircraft. China has repeatedly flown its own drones over those waters, including the WZ-7’s first known flight there in March 2024.

There is an American stake too. The U.S. Air Force is moving three of its own Global Hawks and about 150 airmen from Guam to Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, a relocation U.S. officials call permanent.

DroneXL’s Take

Losing a $110 million drone hurts, but the harder question is how it happened. A Global Hawk is built to fly itself, and Japan’s went into the sea three minutes after its data link faltered, which is the gap the ASDF investigation has to explain.

My read: a comms fault alone shouldn’t bring down an RQ-4. The aircraft’s own lost-link logic should have pointed it toward a preset airfield, so something beyond the link almost certainly failed in those three minutes. The ASDF hasn’t said what.

This fits a run of big American-built surveillance drones going down or going dark over contested water. We covered the MQ-9 Reaper that crashed into the Yellow Sea last November and the MQ-4C Triton that vanished near Iran in February.

Tokyo is right to keep the crash site quiet. Wreckage in international waters off Tottori is an intelligence prize, and Japan already scrambles jets when Chinese drones fly nearby.

With the Defense Ministry pushing combat drones through rapid development, the finding Japan most needs from this crash is how its autonomous aircraft behave when the link drops. The ASDF should publish it.

Sources: The Japan Times, Stars and Stripes, Mainichi Shimbun, ANN

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.