Japan to launch first aircraft carriers since WWII

[dexter]

Japan to launch first aircraft carriers since WWII as Government notes 'national rivalries are surfacing'

The Japanese helicopter carrier, the Izumo, will be converted to an aircraft carrier.(AP: Eugene Hoshiko)


Tokyo will launch its first aircraft carriers since the end of World War II to accommodate a growing number of stealth fighters, long-range missiles and other equipment adding to the Japan Self-Defence Forces (JSDF).

Key points:

• Two helicopter carriers will be modified to become aircraft carriers
• The announcement forms part of a 10-year defence program outlined by Tokyo
• Pacifism is enshrined in Japan's constitution

The guidelines approved at a meeting of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet call for refitting the Izumo helicopter carrier into a ship that can deploy expensive, US-made F-35B stealth fighters capable of short take-offs and vertical landings.

The work would be done over five years and the ship would carry 10 stealth fighters, while the refitting of a second helicopter carrier into a second aircraft carrier would follow.

Japan launched the world's first aircraft carrier in 1922.(Yokosuka Naval Arsenal)

The Prime Minister's guidelines would replace the current defence plan halfway through its intended lifespan and underscore Mr Abe's push to expand Japan's military role and capability to make it, as he puts it, "a normal country."

Defence officials say Japan needs better deterrence and increased missile defence and fighter capability as North Korea's missile and nuclear threats remains unchanged in the absence of concrete steps to dismantle them, and China's maritime activity has grown increasingly assertive.

The new guidelines say Japan needs to be well-prepared and to show it can withstand threats, noting the archipelago is prone to natural disasters and its coastline is dotted with vulnerable nuclear power plants.

Japan has relatively little land on which to build runways long enough for conventional F-35s, and an aircraft carrier would be particularly useful in the western Pacific, where Japan tries to defend remote islands, including those disputed with China, and to play a greater role as part of the US-Japan alliance.

Japan to add 147 F-35 stealth fighters to defence force

The Royal Australian Air Force has also ordered F-35s, dubbed the "most lethal acquisition" in history.(Kyodo News Via AP: Takuto Kaneko)
Japan plans to buy 147 F-35s, including 42 F-35Bs, over the next decade.

These stem from the same class of fighters procured by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), labelled the "most lethal acquisition in the Air Force's history".

The new planes will include 18 short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) B variants of the F-35 that planners want to deploy on Japanese islands along the edge of the East China Sea.

The islands are part of a chain stretching past Taiwan and down to the Philippines that has marked the limit of Chinese military dominance east of the disputed South China Sea.

Source: https://amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproje...h-first-aircraft-carriers-since-wwii/10632254

 

[Aryan0395]

Great, It would be interesting to have Japanese carrier in malabar exercises

 

[BERKEKHAN2]

First aircraft carriers [emoji37][emoji37][emoji37] suicide

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/asia/japan-aircraft-carriers-intl/index.html
Japan to have first aircraft carriers since World War II


Tokyo (CNN)Japan is poised to put its first aircraft carriers to sea since World War II, refitting its Izumo-class warships to carry US-designed F-35B fighter jets, the government announced Tuesday.

In its 10-year Defense Program Guidelines, Tokyo said it will buy 42 of the stealthy F-35Bs, which are designed for short-run take offs and vertical landings.
Those planes will be available for deployment aboard two flat-top ships, the JS Izumo and JS Kaga, which at more than 800 feet long and displacing 27,000 tons are the largest ships in the Japanese fleet.
"Under the drastically changing security environment around Japan, the government will take all possible measures to protect the lives and assets of Japanese people," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday in announcing the plan.
"The review of the new defense guideline is extremely meaningful to show the Japanese people and the world what is truly necessary in our defense to protect the people and to serve as the cornerstone of the future (for the Japan Self-Defense Forces)."
The new guidelines listed China, North Korea and Russia, as well as the United States and NATO, as entities with massive military capabilities with which Japan must concern itself.

Japan's Air Self-Defense Forces' new F-35A jet fighter arrives at Misawa Air Base on the northern end of the main island of Honshu in January.

The Izumo and Kaga have been carrying helicopters designed for anti-submarine warfare since entering service over the past three years. They will need to have their decks reinforced to accommodate the heavier F-35Bs, as well as the heat and force from the jets' thrusters when they land vertically.
Japan will also increase its order for F-35A jets, which take off and land on conventional runways, to 105, the government said. Forty-two of those jets are in service or were part of earlier Japanese orders. Those planes will replace the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's aging F-15J fighters.
The purchases will be spread over 10 years, with 27 of the F-35As and 18 of the F-35Bs to be acquired, as well as the two warships to be refitted, in the first five years.
Total spending over the first five years is pegged at $282.4 billion and will include creating cyber defense and naval transportation units that operate across Japan's three military branches, the Ground, Air and Maritime Self-Defense Forces.

An eye on China

Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, said the new aircraft carriers would give Tokyo the ability to mount territory defenses farther out from its main islands.

Japan's JS Izumo steams with a US Navy destroyer in the South China Sea in 2017.

It comes after a Japanese defense white paper in August highlighted concerns about China. "China's rapid modernization of the People's Liberation Army, enhancement of operational capabilities, and unilateral escalation of activities in areas close to Japan are generating strong security concerns in the region and international community, including Japan," the paper said.

Analysts said Beijing would be forced to pay attention to the carrier capability.
"It further complicates the projection of Chinese military power into the southwestern maritime domain around Japan's Ryukyu islands," said Corey Wallace, an Asia security analyst at Freie University in Berlin.

However Wallace and Schuster both cautioned that the Japanese carriers are small and cannot carry many aircraft -- especially compared to the US Navy's massive 90,000-ton Nimitz-class carriers or even China's 58,000-ton Liaoning carrier.

Photos: F-35 testing
Sailors and distinguished visitors watch an F-35B Lightning II aircraft conduct vertical takeoff and landing flight operations aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp in May 2015. Click through the gallery to see more images from the testing.

When rumors of the Japan's carrier plans surfaced last month, China urged Tokyo to be cautious.

An article in the state-run Global Times newspaper said the refit of the Izumo-class ships, and the purchase of the F-35Bs, "essentially changes the warships' nature from a defensive to offensive one."

"Japan must not forget its infamous history of invading countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific region during WWII," it added.
At the outset of World War II, Japan fielded one of the world's largest and best fleets of aircraft carriers. It was from those that the attack on Pearl Harbor was launched.
But the fleet was decimated in the war, and the post-war constitution put strict limits on Tokyo's forces that allows them to act only in a defensive role.

A defensive plan

In announcing the spending plan Tuesday, Japan stressed it is designed to buttress those defenses.
The plan realizes the need to drastically strengthen Japan's defense and expand its role while the security environment around the country changes rapidly, the Defense Ministry said.

Choosing an expanded F-35 fleet enmeshes the Japanese Self-Defense Force with US and allied militaries around Asia, experts say.

The US, South Korea and Australia also are part of the F-35 program. The planes come with software suites which in theory allow them to communicate in real time in battle.
The US Marine Corps also operates F-35Bs off the US Navy's amphibious assault ships.
Wallace said the future could conceivably see US F-35s operating from Japanese ships and/or Japanese F-35s flying off American ones.

Buying more F-35s also helps Japan curry favor with US President Donald Trump.
Trump has publicly touted international sales of the aircraft as a victory for his administration and praised foreign leaders who have purchased them.

The main assembly point for the F-35 is Fort Worth, Texas, but the jets are also put together in Nagoya, Japan, and Italy. Japanese government officials said all the planes in the new order will be imported.

 

[Super Falcon]

Japan should stop puppeting by USA because it was never designed for that japan is a piwer house once on the world but now china over took it

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

Now, the wisdom behind CPEC is getting clearer!!! No wonder many a folk wants to reach to Pak to know each other once again....

 

[MultaniGuy]

Japan should stop puppeting by USA because it was never designed for that japan is a piwer house once on the world but now china over took it

Somewhat amused of how Japan became a world power back then.

Impressive that the world's first aircraft carrier was done by Japan.

Now look how the time has gone by.

Japan is not as important as it used to be.

Nuclear weapons changed the world forever.

And now China overtook Japan economically, militarily and politically.

How the times have changed.

 

[enquencher]

Somewhat amused of how Japan became a world power back then.

Impressive that the world's first aircraft carrier was done by Japan.

Now look how the time has gone by.

Japan is not as important as it used to be.

Nuclear weapons changed the world forever.

And now China overtook Japan economically, militarily and politically.

How the times have changed.

Japan after nagasaki and hiroshima has cut itself and development n deployments of weapons are only for minimal defence..thats y called as japanese defence fource .about nuclear weapons..constitunally japan will not develop nukes though it has largest reserves of enriched uranium and plutonium

 

[MultaniGuy]

Japan after nagasaki and hiroshima has cut itself and development n deployments of weapons are only for minimal defence..thats y called as japanese defence fource .about nuclear weapons..constitunally japan will not develop nukes though it has largest reserves of enriched uranium and plutonium

Actually it is Russia that has the largest number of enriched uranium. Where are you getting your facts from?

 

[enquencher]

Actually it is Russia that has the largest number of enriched uranium. Where are you getting your facts from?

I read it in some nuclear related magzine..i cannot get the source..but still then i will try n post

 

[MultaniGuy]

I read it in some nuclear related magzine..i cannot get the source..but still then i will try n post

You can google that it is Russia that has the highest number of uranium and plutonium reserves in the world for weapons making.

Nice try though.

 

[enquencher]

You can google that it is Russia that has the highest number of uranium and plutonium reserves in the world for weapons making.

Nice try though.

My bad i may have read something else n mistaken it.
You are right..

 

[War Thunder]

Somewhat amused of how Japan became a world power back then.

Impressive that the world's first aircraft carrier was done by Japan.

Now look how the time has gone by.

Japan is not as important as it used to be.

Nuclear weapons changed the world forever.

And now China overtook Japan economically, militarily and politically.

How the times have changed.

That's what happens when you destroy the traditions of honor and let yourself become slaves of outsiders.
When your culture is converted to a carbon copy of a foreign culture, you are nothing but a mere shadow of what you once were.
That includes Japan, Most north African states, and all of South Asia.

 

[T-123456]

That's what happens when you destroy the traditions of honor and let yourself become slaves of outsiders.
When your culture is converted to a carbon copy of a foreign culture, you are nothing but a mere shadow of what you once were.

Excellent post.

 

[dexter]

That's what happens when you destroy the traditions of honor and let yourself become slaves of outsiders.
When your culture is converted to a carbon copy of a foreign culture, you are nothing but a mere shadow of what you once were.
That includes Japan, Most north African states, and all of South Asia.

Pardon me for being off-topic, but do you by any chance play War thunder game?