JASDF T-4 ‘sniffers’ in action

JAPANESE TV aired footage of a Japan Air Self- Defense Force (JASDF) T-4 jet trainer flying a sampling mission in the wake of North Korea’s claimed detonation of a hydrogen bomb on September 3. After the previous North Korean nuclear test last September, Japan deployed a C-130 and four T-4s to gather air samples over a 14-day period, and it is probable that much the same kind of operation was undertaken this September. For the last sampling operation, T-4s were