Last fall, the launching ceremony of the second Asahi-class destroyer took place in Nagasaki. The ship was named "Shiranuhi" ("sea glow" - an unexplored optical phenomenon observed off the coast of Japan).
Meanwhile, the lead Asahi, launched in 2016, is already completing its test cycle. The commissioning ceremony is scheduled for March 2018.
On the part of the Japanese naval self-defense forces, only brief information was announced regarding the appointment of new destroyers: Asahi and Siranuhi (type 25DD) have expanded anti-submarine capabilities.
The body is identical to the previous 19DD Akizuki series. External differences have a superstructure, where a new radar with receiving and transmitting modules made of gallium nitride (instead of the previously used silicon) is located. Instead of a copy of the American AN / SQQ-89, a self-developed sonar system was installed on the 25DD destroyers. For economic reasons, the Asahi's ammunition was cut by half (from 32 to 16 UVP). The destroyer is equipped with a gas turbine power plant with an electric transmission.
That, perhaps, is all that is reliably known about the warships of the sons of Amaterasu.
The Shiranuhi completes an era in the history of the Japanese navy. The following projects: the promising destroyer (33DD) and the escort frigate (30DEX) being created to work with it in pairs will change the face of the Japanese Navy. A grouped silhouette, a single "octahedron" superstructure with integrated antenna devices and a composite hull. However, I would not attach much importance to this information: the launch of the head 33DD is scheduled for 2024. Taking into account the paranoid secrecy traditional for the Japanese around priority projects, it is now impossible to describe the exact appearance of the destroyer 33DD.
Returning to the Shiranuhi and Asahi, over the past three decades, Japanese ships have been built according to a strict concept. The battle groups are headed by large destroyers with the Aegis system (6 units), focused on fulfilling missile defense missions and intercepting targets on the border of the atmosphere and space. Around the "flagships" there is a dense security ring of 20 destroyers designed in Japan.
While retaining the general layout and features of the American "Arleigh Berks", Japanese projects are smaller, but have a richer configuration and increased efficiency in solving defensive tasks. For example, the Japanese were the first to introduce an AFAR radar on a warship (the OPS-24 system on the destroyer Hamagiri, 1990).
To counter threats from high-speed low-flying missiles (together with the Netherlands), the FCS-3 radar complex with eight active phased antennas was created. Four - for target detection and tracking. Four more - for the guidance of their own anti-aircraft missiles.
Today it is one of the best systems for this purpose.
In one form or another (FCS-3A, OPS-50), the complex has been installed on all destroyers of the Japanese self-defense MS since 2009. A feature of this radar is the centimeter range of operation, which provides the best resolution (at the cost of reducing the detection range).
Such combat assets are prescribed to operate in conjunction with the Aegis destroyers.
The most formidable and modern are Akizuki (autumn moon) and Asahi (rays of the rising sun). A squad of six samurai, who, even apart from their older brothers, remain one of the best destroyer projects in the world. The existing disadvantages (the absence of a long-range radar) are covered by their main advantage - a clear correspondence to the tasks facing them.
Multifunctional warships (7 thousand tons - enough to accommodate any weapons) with outstanding short-range air defense. Aegis is instructed to deal with distant targets in the stratosphere.
I don't like Japanese people. But I like their engineering thought, their ships
- from the Internet
Small ammunition load is an illusion of peacetime. The Japanese have already demonstrated a similar trick, with the replacement of the Mogami artillery towers. The cruisers, in secret, were designed for 8 "caliber, but, according to the terms of an international agreement, they carried" fake "six-inch guns. Until the thunder struck. And the Japanese have four heavy cruisers out of nowhere.
In the case of "Asahi" - a ship with a full weight / and 7 thousand tons is clearly designed for more. Surely, there is a reserved space for additional UVP modules.
Strike weapons are absent for political reasons. Taking into account the state of Japanese science and industry, the creation of their own analogue of "Caliber" is not a problem for them, but a minor expense.
The Japanese authorities are exploring the possibility of creating a production of long-range cruise missiles for striking ground targets. This edition was told by a source in the Cabinet of Ministers of the country. Such plans arose in connection with the unstable situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Japan has its own anti-ship missile system for a long time (“Type 90”). Unified for launching from surface ships and submarines.
Until recently, the Japanese had no significant experience in the field of naval shipbuilding. Sounds ridiculous to the creators of Nagato and Yamato. Alas, the experience of the past was irretrievably lost along with the defeat in the war.
For forty years, the surface forces were frigates with American weapons. The Japanese carried out their own equipment modernization (the FCS-2 control system for the Sea Sparrow air defense missile system), launched a large-scale production of gas turbine power plants under license (Mitsubishi Rolls-Royce, Ishikawajima-Harima), but the general level of military shipbuilding looked unworthy descendants of Admiral Yamamoto.
The breakthrough came in 1990, when Japan, with great difficulty, received technical documentation for the destroyer Arleigh Burke and the Aegis naval air defense system.
Having received the technology, the Japanese immediately built 4 first-class Congo-class destroyers. A name that has nothing to do with the African state. "Congo" - in honor of the legendary battle cruiser, a participant in both world wars, in translation - "indestructible".
From their American "twins", the Japanese Aegis are distinguished by a truss mast and a more cumbersome superstructure, which houses the flagship command post.
What happened next is easy to guess. Serial construction of warships began according to their own designs, combining the best features of the "Arlie Berkov" with Japanese ideas about a modern fleet.
In one decade, 14 Murasame and Takanami-class destroyers were commissioned, which became teaching aids on the path of the revival of the Navy. The most advanced solutions of that time were embodied in the design of these ships (remember, we are talking about the mid-1990s):
- solid superstructure "from side to side", reminiscent of a "berk";
- elements of stealth technology. The hull and superstructure received non-repeating angles of inclination of the outer surfaces, and radio-transparent materials were used in the construction of the masts;
- universal launchers Mk.41 and Mk.48;
- combined electronic warfare station NOLQ-3, copied from the American "slick-32";
- for the first time in world practice - a radar with AFAR;
- the prototype of the new generation BIUS, the development of which later became ATECS (advanced technology command system) - "Japanese Aegis". Actually, no one doubted the Japanese success in the field of microelectronics.
- large-scale measures to increase automation, which made it possible to reduce the crew of "Murasame" to 170 people;
- a powerful and "pick-up" gas turbine unit, capable of reaching full power in 1, 5 minutes.
The rest - without madness and frills. The goal was to build reliable and well-balanced ships, whose appearance matched the current capabilities of the industry.
You need to accept what you can finish in one day. Tomorrow, too, will be only one day.
The Japanese, with their characteristic perseverance and attention to detail, were not even too lazy to build a full-scale "model" of the destroyer with the dissonant name JS-6102 Asuka. In fact, it is a test bench for testing new solutions. In view of the almost complete identity of its characteristics to combat ships (with the exception of some units and a "jumble" of weapons), the Japanese, if necessary, will have one more destroyer.
Having mastered the technique of building modern warships to perfection, the samurai moved on to more expensive and technically sophisticated projects. This is how Akizuki (2010) and Asahi (2016) appeared.
Today, with 30 combat units of the ocean zone, incl. With 26 missile destroyers and 4 aircraft-carrying ships, taking into account the technical level of these means, the surface component of Japan's self-defense MS is deservedly ranked second in the world. The economic component of success is that Japan's military expenditures account for only 1% of GDP (the leader among developed countries is Russia with an indicator of over 5%), and in absolute terms, the Japanese military budget is 1.5 times inferior to the domestic budget.
The main question remains - when, finally, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces will be removed from their name "self-defense"?
Instead of an afterword:
The Japanese naval miracle of the early 20th century, which turned the Land of the Rising Sun into a superpower, became possible only thanks to the amazing rationalism of the Teikoku Kaigun (Imperial Navy). Unlike the confusion and vacillation that reigned in the naval headquarters and admiralty offices of many countries (and especially in Russia), the Japanese made almost no mistakes, adopting all the most advanced from the British allies - technology, tactics, combat training, the system of basing and supply, - and in the shortest possible time creating "from scratch" a modern fleet dominating in the Far Eastern waters.
