national

Japan plans to send its largest warship to South China Sea

37 Comments
By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


37 Comments
Login to comment

Can Nippon Kaigi bus the Moritomo kids up to wave it off?

-4 ( +8 / -12 )

Japan plans to send its largest warship to South China Sea

...and...?

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

Japan has a carrier? I didn't know that. A helicopter carrier, yes, but still a carrier. (You can still launch VTOL aircraft from a helicarrier :) )

2 ( +4 / -2 )

The ship was only commissioned 2 years ago so a 3 month tour while undergoing trials and ending with a naval exercise with its allies is pretty normal

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Is this "airplane carrier"?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

@gaijin playa

...and...?

Read the article carefully. The ship "will make stops in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka before joining the Malabar joint naval exercise with Indian and U.S. naval vessels in the Indian Ocean".

Usual activity for a naval ship.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

If China sends military ships to the area at that time, there could be an unprecedented standoff.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

looks like a great missile launcher with a helipad but looks need to be backed up with strength against North Korea not China as She has the biggest of everything for emergencies like war and china will win

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Japan may be playing a form of Russian roulette. Well, if the gun goes off it would suit the US.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

@sensenotsocommon

How you confuse our largest warship with something to do with nationalist is a little odd? Are you against self defense?

1 ( +8 / -7 )

Who wants to bet that she will be trailed by the PLA Navy? The best workout this vessel and crew oould get is if China trails her with a submarine.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Another step in the wrong direction. The ding, then follow by the dong, then the daiko war drums will boom and the folly of war, of death, of destruction will follow.

-9 ( +2 / -11 )

I wonder if they would be brave enough to do that if the US wasn't backing them?

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Cowards!!

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

As should be well known by now, Japan is rapidly arming. In the last 5 years it went from strictly pacifist, to pondering who to sell arms to. It will be very interesting if Japan and the USA patrol together. It may be dangerous, but it also may be safer than having the Chinese fly or sail closer and closer. As long as everyone has their little zones to claim they can live and let.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Not the best thing for them to do.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Every navy sends ships out on "showing the flag" cruises with stops at various ports, the objective is mainly a combination of training and diplomacy. As part of the ships work up and training is only sensible.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Wonderfull new ship, Izumo can carry Battletanks

4 ( +5 / -1 )

China brought this on. Only China is to blame. Anyone that thinks letting China continue to do what it wants without being challenged is a good idea must clearly be from the Chinese group that wants total control of the area. If you let China continue too long, China will just claim that no one said anything and so it's theirs. They are already partly claiming it as it stands. Just look at how far the world has let North Korea advance. When will it be too late to stop either of those two?

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Its incredible how influence works, USA managed to not be enemiy with its neighbors but Russia, China, venezuela, Iran have a lot to learn. Be friends with countries that are close to you

2 ( +3 / -1 )

“It will train with the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea,” he added, asking not to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

Isn't giving away secrets called treason?

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Why is this gigantic warship called an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) carrier and classified as a helicopter destroyer? It's no different from the USS amphibious assault ship BonHomme Richard in size and almost all other specifications.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Voice: It's classed as a submarine destroyer. How it it different? Try the article.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

When the JS Izumo was launched the band played both the Gunkan March as well as Anchors Aweigh at the ceremony.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

As the article states, it lacks a well deck therefore it cannot launch amphibious vehicles to assualt a position.

It hunts submarines through sophisticated sonar systems and arial surveillance

0 ( +1 / -1 )

well Rodrigo Duterte showed his real stance, while the whole Philippines is freaking out about Chinese ships conducting surveys in Bernham Rise ( A Philippine Territory), Duterte made a statement that HE alone gave China permission to be there and do the survey! So Japan, as long as Duterte remains the president in the Philippines, don't expect that he will side you over China.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

If the JMSDD lost this ship, she will lost her carrier forever

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

it's useless to help Philippines as Duterte is a chinese ally. I will not be surprised if the filipinos will be asked tofight side by side with china against Japan. So maybe this ship should better off guarding only Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

nandakandamanda,

The article says:

The 249 meter-long Izumo is as large as Japan’s World War Two-era carriers and can operate up to nine helicopters. It resembles the amphibious assault carriers used by U.S. Marines, but lacks their well deck for launching landing craft and other vessels.

I see. It may lack a well deck to release assaul troops and vehicles the BonHomme Richard has. So it may not be an assault ship, but can't it be turned into a regular assault aircraft carrier with only minor changes made in a short period of time?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

get ready for apocalyptic WW3

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

I wonder if and how many F-35Cs it could carry.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So it may not be an assault ship, but can't it be turned into a regular assault aircraft carrier with only minor changes made in a short period of time?

No, it lacks the deck space required to carry enough aircraft to be used like a CVN. Japan would have to just build a brand new aircraft carrier for that. The closest they could get to naming this a strike capable aircraft carrier is placing some F-35C on it but they probably would be able to put enough aircraft on it to do much.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

CyburneticTiger,

It may lack enough space on the deck to carry a required number of aircraft, as you say. But when it participated in joint Japan-U.S. exercises off the U.S. coast last year, it demonstrated capability to put a landed MV-2 Osprey away into a storage space under the deck. Can't its cruising speed at 30 knots (56 km/h) deal with landing and taking-off jet planes easily?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Graham DeShazoMar. 15, 2017 - 05:15PM JST I wonder if and how many F-35Cs it could carry.

You mean F-35B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXufPGRy_QA

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The Izumo class would be a poor candidate as a fixed wing carrier due to lack of space and facilities. The ship would be able to carry about 6~8 planes but it does not have space to remove and test the engines like the US super carriers so it would be a temporary platform at best.

Japan could develop a better platform utilizing maglev technology to install an EMAL system if they really wanted one but it would be a very costly endeavor that most nation would not opt in to.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Voice, the only jets the Izumo could carry are the AV-8 or the F-35C because it lacks the deck length needed for any others to take off or land. Yes, they can use the extra hangar space they have due to the lack of well deck to store more aircraft. But as Triring pointed out, there needs to be a lot of space for maintenance. They would also be playing a slow difficult game of tetris as they tried to move aircraft and gear around in order to put aircraft on the flight deck. Trying to get jets in the sky would be so slow and inefficient that it really wouldn't make sense to have more than 8.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

CyburneticTiger,

... the only jets the Izumo could carry are the AV-8 or the F-35C because it lacks the deck length needed for any others to take off or land.

You sound as if the Izumo could carry only outmoded jets. But aren't AV-8's and F-35's cutting-edge aircraft, the former having a V/STOL function and the latter a stealth function?

But I won't go any further in this discussion for technical details about the Izumo. All I want to know is why the JMSDF needs to possess such a warship only for self-defense.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites