‘Twas the night before NEXT Christmas—PMTEC to enhance Yokota Air Base radar and comms in time for Operation Christmas Drop 2026

Photo By Staff Sgt. Tristan Truesdell | A Japan Air Self-Defense Force loadmaster assigned to the 401st Tactical Airlift Squadron looks on at the Republic of the Marshall Islands during a flyover before airdropping humanitarian assistance bundles as part of Operation Christmas Drop 2025 in the Indo-Pacific region, Dec. 8, 2025. Around 270 bundles were constructed, filled and loaded onto C-130 Hercules aircraft from the U.S., Canada, Japan and Republic of Korea air forces to be delivered to 59 remote islands in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau. This effort boasts the power of alliance and partnership in fostering stability and providing rapid airlift response in the region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Tristan Truesdell)  

JAPAN

12.31.2025

Story by Eleanor Prohaska 

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command         

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — By Christmas 2026, aircrews and air traffic controllers at Yokota Air Base and Combined Arms Training Center Fuji will be utilizing enhanced radar and radio capabilities, a project driven by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command's Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability office. This upgrade is poised to significantly improve training realism, safety, and mission readiness in the region.

The PMTEC investment will install dedicated air-to-ground communications, a direct landline between CATC Fuji Range Control and the Yokota Radar Approach Control. U.S. Forces Japan and 5th Air Force are collaborating to field a comprehensive radar system to provide coverage that will enable tracking on approach to and within the training area.

"Giving us the additional capabilities to help the pilots through the weather would allow us to get the pilot from a higher altitude through a cloud layer underneath the clouds in the Camp Fuji Valley," said Master Sgt. Tyler Sheer, Assistant Chief Controller, Radar, 374th Operations Support Squadron. "The biggest hurdle is getting them below the cloud layer... having that radar will allow us to legally get them through the clouds to a lower level where we can still see them and hear them, and they can conduct their mission safely."

This initiative supports PMTEC’s goal of creating a unified, persistent training ecosystem that enhances capabilities and links geographically dispersed ranges, resources, and warfighters. For the controllers at Yokota AB, the upgrades promise not only enhanced safety but also a more manageable workload.

According to Sheer, a key benefit is reducing air traffic controller stress caused by frequency congestion and unreliable communications. "If we had that extra capability, we would be able to keep them on our frequencies or on our scope, it would just take a little bit of redundancy out from the controllers," he said. "It does get very stressful if you have three aircraft calling up on different frequencies and the radios aren't reliable and you're having to repeat yourself."

The enhanced proficiency will have a direct impact on missions like the annual Operation Christmas Drop, a Pacific Air Forces-sponsored, annual, multinational, humanitarian mission that airdrops supplies to remote islands across the Indo-Pacific.

"Having the additional radar and radio capabilities in the CATC Fuji area would allow us... to provide them more training, repetitions and training practice and expertise for... their main Indo Pacific missions like Operation Christmas drop," said Sheer.

About PMTEC: Established in 2022, the Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability is a transformative enterprise funded and resourced by the United States Indo-Pacific Command to enhance joint, combined, and coalition warfighting readiness, posture, and lethality in the Indo-Pacific. It has created and is constantly enhancing the largest coalition range system in the world, linking geographically distributed ranges and training areas across the Indo-Pacific theater and beyond. PMTEC is a key component of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, reinforcing the U.S. commitment to homeland defense and a free and open Indo-Pacific. PMTEC’s integration of advanced training technologies and its alignment with U.S. National Security Strategy make it a cornerstone of U.S. efforts to maintain regional stability and counter adversarial aggression.

• Date Taken: 12.31.2025
• Date Posted: 01.06.2026 21:09
• Story ID: 555649
• Location: JP