Japanese helicopter carrier to tour South China Sea, Indian Ocean for two months

Good. All allied nations should freely navigate the INTERNATIONAL WATERS that the Chinese dictatorship claims as it's own.

The 248 meter-long Kaga, which can operate several helicopters simultaneously, will make stops in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and at ports in India and Sri Lanka, said the sources who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Meaning that under the "State Secrets Act" both the people who talked and the media that reported it, are liable for punitive punishment for publishing and disclosing the information.

Loose lips, sinks ships!

The Kaga, which is as big as any aircraft carrier operated by the Japanese Imperial Navy in World War Two, is designated as a destroyer to keep it within the bounds of those constitutional restraints.

That is the freakiest looking "destroyer" I have ever seen!

Good for them, now is not the time to be complacent.

Promote a free and open Indo-Pacific Ocean with warships, that is the Japanese way.

Trump's "Japan needs to pay more" for protection push.

Absolutely the right thing to do with a country (China) that only gives earned respect. We all know what China will do to you if you are weak. They are already shooting water cannons at other country’s fishing boats in their own countries.

I like the use of 'tour' brings back desert storm memories. China should simply reciprocate and send one to the 'sea of japan'

They call that aircraft carrier a "destroyer"? Dude, fake news.

Even the Hyuga's, at 19,000 tons are carriers in disguise; Osprey's regularly land and are carried below deck on a much smaller "destroyer" than the Izumo/Kaga.

Japanese officers have had to accept that the Izumo/Kaga were built to accommodate the F-35 from the start. This is nothing new; Japan has done this dubious thingy with its carriers before.

Interesting to note that the original Kaga was one of the aircraft carriers that took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was later sunk at the Battle of Midway.

"This is part Japan's efforts to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific,"

The Indo-Pacific is already free and open.

How about respecting all thousands of souls who keep that helicopter carrier operating. Who cares how it's classified.

"Who cares how it's classified."

China for one; all the remaining/potential foes as well.

It seems you're not paying attention; Japan is quietly admitting that the Izumo is F-35 ready. Already.

No modifications or sky ramp needed.

Peeping_TomToday 08:10 am JST

Japanese officers have had to accept that the Izumo/Kaga were built to accommodate the F-35 from the start. This is nothing new; Japan has done this dubious thingy with its carriers before.

Since Japan hasn't had vessels of this type like 70 years what are you referring to?

They should cruise out to the illegal chinese base they made, drop anchor, and conduct flight operations.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/photos-reveal-chinas-south-china-sea-island-fortresses-are-complete/news-story/776e1a695fb41ccb7e47a436594c1530

It is a great comfort to hear Japan and the US continue with the freedom navigation exercises on south china sea.

However, China will get angry and send more paramilitary vessels to harass and sink poor Vietnamese fishermen boats.

We sick and tired of being a whipping boy when China gets angry with the world !

This is one of the main cause for our recent demonstrations.

I do not understand why our government hasn’t joined force with the Japanese Coast Guards to protect the freedom of navigation, and the traditional fishing right of our fishermen.

"The Indo-Pacific is already free and open."

Thanks to the US NAVY.

The Kaga,

 A fast and great ship going in harm's way.

Good for Japan.The Kaga will sail right thru the disputed area. Try and stop it China! It will be the fight of your lives. Only Japan under PM Abe and USA under Trump has stepped up to enforce “rule off law” and “freedom of navigation”. Other nations like UK, Australia, Korea, Canada just sit on their hands.

Thank-you Abe Cabinet.

Other nations like UK, Australia, Korea, Canada just sit on their hands.

Because trade. The Achilles heal of Australia's foreign policy regarding China. Not much can be done about it in the short term, but longer term is more promising. I personally wish we could do more.

zichi, there is nothing wrong to militarize atolls if China wants it, as long as China does not militarize Japan.

A few well placed MOABs would take care of the chinese out at the Spratlys...then all their money spent on a sand bar goes up in smoke. https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/photos-reveal-chinas-south-china-sea-island-fortresses-are-complete/news-story/776e1a695fb41ccb7e47a436594c1530

Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei also claim parts of the South China Sea, which has rich fishing grounds, as well as oil and gas deposits. Taiwan also claims the sea but Japan has no claim to any part of it.

Correction please, Philipppines is no longer part of this resistence. Duterte gave up the islands to the Chinese and planned to just make war with them on YEAR 4001.

Because trade. The Achilles heal of Australia's foreign policy regarding China. Not much can be done about it in the short term, but longer term is more promising. I personally wish we could do more.

No excuse. Japan has big trade with China and is sending warships to enforce the rules. The UK, Australia and Canada should be sending warships too. Waiting for a year to send them is too late. Shame on them. Only Japan and USA stand up too bully.

Sorry about the repeat; here's the right link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9H50tHiHjs

@Ganbare Japan

I’m sure you’ll find Australia has been conducting freedom of navigation exercises for both the Navy and Air Force in the region for a while. We are not sitting on our hands....

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-20/south-china-sea-australian-warships-challenged-by-chinese/9677908

"The Australian military is carrying out "freedom of navigation" flights over disputed islands in the South China Sea, the BBC has uncovered."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-35099445

"Australia’s navy and air force have already conducted a number of operations in which they go right up to the edge of, but do not cross, the 12NM limit. France, Britain and other nations have sailed similarly close to such arbitrary limits in order to establish the principle of freedom of navigation."

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/australia-considers-sending-vessel-into-south-china-sea/news-story/51eea2b357a98e5e2c08f8e5c295b67a

"French and UK Royal Navy ships will be joining their US counterparts in challenging China’s territorial claims in disputed regions of the South China Sea, the two countries’ defense ministers have announced."

https://navaltoday.com/category/regional_news/americas-regional_news/

://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-senate-passes-motion-condemning-chinas-hostile-behaviour-in-south/

RogerR

About 70 years ago, in order to circumvent the London Naval Treaty; a treaty designed to ensure Japan would lag behind Britain and the US.

Nothing new here.

Surprise attack on the little flyspecks China is building in the South China Sea.

That’s good Australia sent warships, but they have no Aircraft Carrier like Japan, USA or UK. They should up their Military spending and not always rely on Japan and USA to do the hard work in the region.

Scary to Imagine how bad the situation would be without the tough Abe and Trump government with all the pacifist Nations in the region.

There's a lot of speculation on these ships being used as aircraft carriers. Be that as it may, Anti-Submarine Warfare is also important role, and the ships carry a complement of ASW capable helicopters. They can assist in locating enemy submarines with their dipping sonar and sinking them with torpedoes. Potential roles would include fleet protection via ASW, either MSDF ships only or as part of an international force. With ships like these, it should be possible to keep helos on ASW patrol constantly for extended periods of time.

From what I can tell, it seems that the desiganted ASW helos are Mistubishi H60s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_H-60

Theorectically they could also assist in locating Chinese or Russian ballistic missile subs, although I would surmise that the diesel subs of the MSDF would play a much larger role in detection and prosecution.

As for Ospreys, they'd be suitable for assisting in amphibious operations. Note that the Izumo class of ships cannot launch landing craft, and the Ospreys could only help in moving a small compliment of men or equipment/supplies at a time.

Unfortunately Japan doesn't have any truly amphibious ships. There are AFAIK a total of 3 ships that have to dock at a "friendly" pier and unload troops, vehicles and supplies. Retaking invaded territory such as the Senkakus would be that much harder, although not impossible. Izumo class ships would help alleviate the burden.

Hey !! Bring you ship down to New Zealand. WE would love you come and visit. Take this note as my invitation to come and visit.

REGARDS;

SEAN MURPHY;

CHRISTCHURCH,

NEW ZEALAND.

No excuse. Japan has big trade with China and is sending warships to enforce the rules. The UK, Australia and Canada should be sending warships too. Waiting for a year to send them is too late. Shame on them. Only Japan and USA stand up too bully.

A lot of countries, as others have pointed out, have been sending ships into the SCS, but only the U.S has ventured into that 12 nautical mile limit. Personally I fail to see the point in sailing close to those islands, but I do see the point in patrolling the SCS more broadly in terms of trade and shipping.

There are a lot of measures that can be taken by the West and Japan to guarantee their future economic prosperity and security, but in terms of my own thoughts I would be here all day if I was to outline them all.

Suffice to say that for now I hope the trade war between the U.S and China happens. We need it to happen because we need U.S companies to move away from Chinese exports to fulfill domestic demand. They must start looking further afield and I hope their is a solid move in that direction when the dust has settled. Trump should look to back away from anything too nasty with Europe, Japan and Canada. That is not the main game in town. I also hope that Trump makes strong progress in getting the laggards in NATO to lift their defense spending and Europe pushes forward in ensuring their own security. More E.U based defense projects and more joint E.U/U.S/Japan research on defense is needed as an urgent priority.

Ganbare Japan. You need to do some research before slagging off on Australia. Oz has two similar vessels to your "destroyers". The aircraft carriers you have when you don't have aircraft carriers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canberra-class_landing_helicopter_dock

Hey !! Bring you ship down to New Zealand. WE would love you come and visit. Take this note as my invitation to come and visit.

Speaking of N.Z. About time you pulled your weight and lifted your defense spending from 1.1%.

Same goes for Japan. Still only 0.9%. That needs to lift as well.

Australia? Bang on 2.0% atm.

Those of you who are claiming that it's not a destroyer but a carrier, why don't you rag on china for saying they won't militarize their fake islands but then brought in missiles and warplanes? Or why they promised democracy in Hong Kong but then lied about it?

china is the original FAKER.

BeowulfOkami, if you call self defense militarization, then the earth is militarized. If you call HK is not democratic, then there is no place on the earth has democracy.

Give Japan some encouragements and see how long it will challenge China for her own benefits.

Do Japanese policy makers really believe that some hostile country may attack and invade Japan, so that Japan must build up its arms even with attack capabilities? 

Haven't they forgotten that Japan is under the U.S. military's virtual occupation with so many bases planted across Japan, some of which are no other than forward bases for attack? 

It's these bases that are adversely affecting Japan’s international standing and no doubt can be a catalysis for inviting potential attacks from antagonists. Bases will be the targets of such attacks; never will be Japan itself.

serendipitous1, according to Abe, his govt didn't lie. So the name is Japan.

Haven't they forgotten that Japan is under the U.S. military's virtual occupation with so many bases planted across Japan, some of which are no other than forward bases for attack? 

The U.S is not as strong in comparison to other countries as it was. Their clear and overwhelming advantage has dissipated, in nuclear with both China and Russia, but more importantly, in conventional arms with China.

Technologically, China is rapidly approaching the U.S level and they have the financial clout to build a comparative force in numbers, in terms of their navy

So we must now move from relying on the U.S to a true alliance where the burden of deterrence is more evenly shared across all the services - army, navy, air force and in future, perhaps even space. Every ally should be building up their military but in a way that compliments their partners to the maximum extent possible using the 2% of defense spending on GNP as a minimum benchmark imo.

If you take Australia for example. It is widely recognized we do not have capability to defend ourselves so our equipment purchases are designed to compliment the U.S and work with U.S systems, ie AEGIS etc.

This is the new reality that we all need to accept. The U.S cannot do it alone anymore.

Akie,

The young people of Vietnam like me have finally learned about the truth.

China only encouraged and supplied arm for North Vietnam, so our parent generation sacrificed their lives in the 70s fought the US to protect the chinese communist interests.

The CCP sold Vietnam out, and attacked us from 1979 to 1989 in order to show off to the US that it can control Vietnam.

As the result, it gave the CCP a better negotiating power for US’s economic aid created the morder China as it is today.

Vietnamese owe the CCP nothing, and that the truth of the modern history the CCP is trying hard to rewrite atm.

What a waste of tax-payer money.....

China only encouraged and supplied arm for North Vietnam, so our parent generation sacrificed their lives in the 70s fought the US to protect the chinese communist interests.

I don't know about this too much, but definitely Ho Chi Minh is a hero. I'm sorry my country was so shortsighted and didn't listen to the Asian CIA office who told them that Ho was negotiable. History would be a lot different had the US not listened to Dulles.

Japanese helicopter carrier to tour South China Sea, Indian Ocean for two months

No doubt China will file protest. It's okay for their navy to tour the region, not okay for Japan and U.S.

Viet Nam Youth, because your govt isn't as stupid as you are. (AkieToday  09:39 am JST)

I don't know about this too much, but definitely Ho Chi Minh is a hero. I'm sorry my country was so shortsighted and didn't listen to the Asian CIA office who told them that Ho was negotiable. History would be a lot different had the US not listened to Dulles. (FizzBitToday  02:22 pm JST)

Apparently the Vietnamese people don't agree with your views. 95% of Vietnamese people support capitalism and believes Vietnam economy would have been better today had South Vietnam won the war.

Of course the leftists here won't admit that.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-03-12/it-turns-out-communist-vietnam-loves-capitalism-more-us-does

"You need to do some research before slagging off on Australia. Oz has two similar vessels to your "destroyers". The aircraft carriers you have when you don't have aircraft carriers."

Canberra are fine ships, but they are not in the same class as the Izumo Class. The Izumos are bigger and faster.

The Canberra was built by BAE in Spain. Both ships ( HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide) were out of action in March because of engine problems. In comparison, the Izumo and sister ship the Kaga have deployed on long missions. HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide have stayed near Australia because the same issues.

The Izumo is just the beginning. The plan is is to convert the Izumo so they can carry f35b. Next, based on what Japan learned from the Izumo, a full deck carrier is in the works. A new class- the Senkaku Class

DDH-185 Senkaku

DDH-186 Takashima

DDH-187 Akagi

DDH 188 Hiryu.

if you call self defense militarization, then the earth is militarized

akie, invading other people's land and ocean and building your FAKE islands in other people's sea and then claiming "self-defence" is pure cowardice. It is like you raping a woman and saying that YOU are the victim. Shame on you. If you think taking over other people's land & sea is "self-defence", then Japan was only "defending itself" when it took over china in WW2.

Good luck to the sailors. May their tour be safe and uneventful!

I had the chance to take a tour on that carrier. It actually isn't that big. I has the one special anti aircraft lazer guided gun on the back and on the front it has a couple missle silo things that are loaded from within the carrier. One good thing is they can meet up with some other ships and have a grand yakiniku party on the deck.

FizzBit & Halwick.

HCM prepared the Independent Declaration of Vietnam in 1948 was mostly based on the US’s 4th of July Declaration of Independent.

Given the choice, without pressure from the CCP and the Soviet at that time, he could have led Vietnam following the US model ?.

Invasion of the South was under pressure from the communist block, mostly from China because many of his senior communist officers at the time were members and under the control of the CCP.

Anyway, no point crying about the past because we cannot change it. Let’s look forward to the peaceful future of the world !. The question is how can the world convince China to progress in peace without harassing and invading other countries ?.

Promote a free and open Indo-Pacific Ocean with warships, that is the Japanese way.

China clowns should follow the news so that they would know that other nations also challenge the efforts of the PLAN in the South China sea and Indian ocean.

"This is part Japan's efforts to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific,"

The Indo-Pacific is already free and open.

So what's happening in the South-China sea?

I like the use of 'tour' brings back desert storm memories. China should simply reciprocate and send one to the 'sea of japan'

Cool. Only if it visits Niigata. I’d love to take a tour of a Chinese carrier.

Surprise attack on the little flyspecks China is building in the South China Sea.

Can’t use 新高山登れ (Niitaka Yama nobore- climb Mt. Niitaka) this time. Niitaka Yama is in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and not in the empire anymore.

The upcoming tour of the Kaga through the South china sea and indo pacific is great news.

The destroyers that look like Aircraft carriers and which can no doubt launch and land fixed wing aircraft of the appropriate type are indeed fine vessels. Comparisons with Australia's Canberra class helicopter carriers is both right and wrong as the designed primary use is different between the classes. Australias Canberra class ships could be modified to accomodate fixed wing missions if required, so could be turned into true aircraft carrier multi mission vessels. In an emergency STOVL aircraft could already land and take off from Canberra but repeated use would damage the decks on landing. Also additional radars would be needed for flight control of fixed wing craft.

Would be nice to see the Canberra or Adelaide tour alongside the Kaga through the South china sea and Indo Pacific. Throw in the new HMAS Hobart air warfare destroyer and you have a nice little fleet.

So what's happening in the South-China sea?

Good question.  China is quietly conducting electronic warfare tests and continuing to fortifying their military island.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/05/us-intel-report-china-quietly-testing-electronic-warfare-assets-on-sp.html

it will be Interesting to see what happens when they target the Kaga.

" had the chance to take a tour on that carrier. It actually isn't that big"

????????!

It's as big as the already published dimensions that everyone can read.

It's however bigger than Britain's Invincible class that fought in the Falklands; Harriers could operate from the Invincible deck, only a fool would think that the Izumo could not operate the F-35B.

Prince of Asturias (Spain), Garibaldi (Italy), Vikrant (India) are all full fledge aircraft carriers.

They're all SMALLER than the Izumo &? Kaga!

Telll me again that Japan does not possess the means to carry and fly planes from its "destroyers"!