TOKYO: Nine U.S. F-22 stealth fighters were stationed at the U.S. Air Force’s Kadena base in Japan’s Okinawa for a four-month deployment, local media reported late Monday.

The fighters that arrived at the base Monday were originally based at Langley-Eustis joint air base in the state of Virginia in the United States, Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported.

Three more fighters of this kind are expected to arrive at Kadena shortly for the 7th temporary deployment in the base since 2007, while about 300 servicemen will be also sent to the base, Kyodo said.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Self-Defense Force (SDF) and the U.S. air forces held a five-day joint military drill in an air base at the prefecture of Miyazaki.

The SDF had a war game which joined by Japan’s only airborne force on Sunday in Chiba Prefecture focusing on island defense. About 20 aircrafts and 33 armored vehicles, along with some 300 SDF members, participated in the drill.

The SDF planned to exercise a joint military drill with the United States in an island in Okinawa but was canceled for strong opposition from local residents.