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By Teppei Kasai and Tim Kelly
MISAWA, Japan, Oct 22 (Reuters) - British fighter planeswill take on Japanese aircraft for the first time since WorldWar Two in aerial combat drills following the arrival in Japanon Saturday of four Royal Air Force Typhoon Eurofighters.
The joint practice at Japan's northern Misawa Air Base starts on Sunday and will be the first time Japan's air forcetrain at home with a foreign force other than that of the UnitedStates.
The jets along with a C-17 support plane touched down earlyin the evening under overcast skies, their high-pitched screamsprompting some onlookers to cover their ears.
The Typhoons will face off against and fly with JapaneseF-15s and domestically built Mitsubishi F-2s in an exercisedubbed Guardian North 16.
"We will learn from each other, and ultimately we will makefriendships that will tie us together more closely in thefuture," RAF Lieutenant Colonel Roger Elliot, said inintroductory remarks to 100 Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF)personnel.
Both countries want to hone scramble techniques to counterforeign military aircraft approaching their airspaces. Bothregularly shadow Russian planes and the JASDF scrambles whenChinese jets approaching its southwestern border.
As China's control of the neighbouring South China Seatightens, Japan worries that Beijing's attention is turningtoward the East China Sea where Japan controls a chain ofislands stretching 1,400 km (870 miles) towards Taiwan.
In the six months to the end of September, Japanesefighters took off to chase Chinese planes 407 times comparedwith 231 times a year earlier, according to the JASDF.Encounters with Russian bombers and surveillance planes, whichfly in from the north rose 67 percent to 180 incidents.
The Typhoon visit is also an opportunity for Japan's airforce see Europe's most advanced jet as it looks at proposalsfor developing a new fighter to replace its F-2s at a cost of asmuch as $40 billion.
In 2011 Japan considered a bid by BAE Systems tosell it the Typhoon in a competition ultimately won by LockheedMartin Corp with its F-35 stealth fighter.
Japan has yet to decide what kind of aircraft its newfighter, dubbed the F-3, will be, but the choice is between acheaper non-stealth superiority fighter based on an existingdesign, such as the Eurofighter, or a more expensive program tobuild a stealth fighter like the U.S. F-22 Raptor. (Reporting by Tim Kelly Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)