【Military Sub-Plane】Author: Le Le
On the morning of September 1, Japan's Jiji News Agency suddenly reported that the Japanese Ministry of Defense was preparing to build two new large warships. Its main indicators are: the standard displacement of about 20,000 tons, equipped with the SPY-7 large radar originally used for land missile defense systems, equipped with the US-made Standard-3 Block 2A anti-ballistic missile, the Standard-6 long-range air defense missile, the Japanese domestic type 12 anti-ship missile, and the invasion of land cruise missiles evolved on its basis. The new ship, which can fully be classified as a heavy cruiser, is expected to enter service in 2027 and exists as a maritime mobile platform for Japan's missile defense system and a forward early warning and air defense base.
▲Domestic reports on articles related to the Nippon Jiji News Agency
It should be said that when looking at these basic design indicators, especially when it is found that this is actually a large number of advanced weapons and equipment, and has a displacement that exceeds the displacement of other warships of the same type of sea power, it is always easy to think of the "Yamato" and "Musashi" super battleships built by the Japanese Navy before the outbreak of the Pacific War. In fact, Japan's Jiji News Agency also quickly listed the new 20,000-ton ship in the article, and the Yamato-class battleships are most similar. That is, due to the heavy use of automation equipment, the new ship is expected to carry only 110 crew members to meet the demand, given its considerable tonnage, then each crew can have their own single room. This kind of thinking is similar to the "Yamato" and "Musashi" during the Pacific War, which were occupied by the japanese naval high-level due to the abundant space inside the ship and the air conditioning, and became the "Yamato Hotel" and "Musashi Hotel".
The battleship Yamato, which was eventually destroyed by U.S. carrier-based aircraft
As for this preliminary plan, there are already many voices of doubt within Japan, believing that this kind of special warship that is highly focused on maritime anti-missile operations, so that other aspects are greatly restricted, has not been verified before, and the specific combat effectiveness is very debatable, and if it is not careful, it will become a "waste warship" like "Yamato" and "Musashi", which is extremely expensive but has little practical effect. In fact, this kind of thinking is a bit too much, and considering that the many requirements listed by the new ship are very demanding, it is almost impossible to start entering service around 2027. Although the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has begun to allocate the relevant costs, it is still very far from officially starting to develop, because Japan currently seriously lacks the ability to design and build warships of this class.
▲ The aircraft carrier "Izumo" arrived at Pearl Harbor not long ago to participate in military exercises
On the surface, the latest construction of the Japanese shipbuilding industry, the "Izumo" class aircraft carrier that is currently in the transformation stage, has a full load displacement of up to 26,000 tons, and there is not much gap from the new 20,000-ton ship that has just been exploded, and the construction of the latter should have no technical problems, but in fact it is not so. The tonnage can only describe the most basic dimensional performance of a warship, and the gap between different types of warships is actually very large. For example, the domestic Type 075 amphibious assault ship is generally considered to have a full load displacement of nearly 40,000 tons, but its production unit in the external announcement, but it is called "20,000-ton ship", the reason is that the amphibious assault ship is mainly equipped with an amphibious combat platform, and there is a large amount of space for carrying cargo in the cabin, and the gap between before and after the full load naturally becomes very large. The same is true of helicopter carriers such as the "Izumo" class, which has a large hangar space inside in order to carry more than 10 helicopters.
▲Domestic Type 075 amphibious assault ship "belly power"
But for destroyers, cruisers, carrying one or two carrier-based helicopters is enough to ensure aviation demand, the internal design is naturally relatively thick, if only the standard displacement tonnage reaches the level of 20,000 tons, then it means that a large number of equipment is filled inside, and its design and manufacturing difficulty is much higher than that of "Izumo". Specifically, a large number of advanced ship-borne equipment want to be integrated into a maritime platform, not to say that it is simply stacked, it is necessary to carry out comprehensive simulation of the internal support and specific layout required for various equipment, so as to perform their duties at the same time, without interfering with the normal operation of other equipment, which requires time, technology and experience. With the previous construction of destroyers with a tonnage of only about 10,000 tons and the technical indicators of new ships being extremely demanding, it is almost impossible to quickly start construction in pursuit of service in 2027.
▲The Japanese-equipped "Maya" 10,000-ton destroyer
Therefore, this revealed plan is most likely only one of the many plans of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force when planning future development, and whether it can be carried out in the end depends on the specific situation. For example, at the 2011 Thailand Air Show, China exhibited an export amphibious assault ship program evolved from a domestically produced Type 071 dock landing ship with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons. Later, when the development of domestic amphibious assault ships really began, it was on the basis of this export plan that a number of programs such as 25,000 tons, 30,000 tons, 40,000 tons, and 45,000 tons were proposed. Because at that time, China had already broken through the technical threshold of large-size flight decks and internal hangars through the transformation and construction of two aircraft carriers, and had 27,000 tons of construction experience of 071, so 075 would choose a high-level program of 40,000 tons.
▲ The Type 071 dock landing ship is an important foundation for the construction of the 075
Today, due to the increase in the size of the shipboard vertical launcher and the increase in destroyer/cruiser tasks, the tonnage of the capital ships of the development of various sea powers is rising. Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, as a maritime force that has never been left behind, naturally recognizes this trend, and when planning the next generation of destroyers, according to the pattern of increasing tonnage successively, it is not incomprehensible to list a 20,000-ton program with superior performance but great difficulty in actual construction, but this special model is currently very difficult to build, and it is not excluded that it is possible to serve in the political game. In addition, it is destined to be impossible to become a mass production model, and the tonnage of the capital ships that the Sea of Japan will actually build in the future is most likely to be around 12,000 tons, which is equivalent to 055.
▲ In the future, there should be more and more "imitation 055"
The reason for this speculation, on the one hand, is that this level of 055 has shown a very strong combat effectiveness, which means that this road is feasible, and the Sea of Japan, as a latecomer, can reach the end point by simply burying its head in the case of a clear goal, without taking too much technical risk. On the other hand, the U.S. Navy, while building the "Ali Burke" III, an old bottle of new wine, also began the development of a new generation of destroyer DDG(X), which is said to be equivalent to 055 in tonnage, which means that Japan should be supported by the United States in this field. Therefore, around 2030, the outside world should be able to see the tonnage of the main destroyers of China, the United States and Japan, but this time China is no longer a latecomer struggling to catch up, but a forwarder in the direction of leadership.