Stars and Stripes:
IRUMA AIR BASE, Japan — Japanese airmen’s boots thudded on asphalt and electric motors hummed as a PAC3 missile launcher aimed into the blue sky over Tokyo.
The launcher, part of a U.S.-made Patriot missile-defense system at Iruma, a Japan Air Self-Defense Force base on the city’s outskirts, is one of many that protect about 36 million people — including tens of thousands of American personnel and their families — living in and around the Japanese capital.
On Thursday, the JASDF is scheduled to conduct drills for deploying its PAC3 interceptors at four bases in Tokyo in response to recent North Korean missile tests, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported…
