Japan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Japanese shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has launched the 11th Soryu-class submarine for the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force at its Kobe shipyard.

JS Oryu (SS-511) was launched October 4 and is the first JMSDF submarine to run on lithium-ion batteries which store considerably more power than the lead-acid batteries installed on the previous ten Soryu-class submarines.

Oryu is the sixth vessel in the class to be built by MHI. The other shipbuilder involved in the construction of Japan’s diesel-electric submarines is Kawasaki Heavy Industries who launched the country’s tenth submarine in November 2017.

MHI says the 84-meter submarines are the world’s largest conventionally powered boats. They are also Japan’s first submarines to be fitted with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems that enable them to remain fully submerged for longer periods of time.

The 2,950-ton submarines are propelled by a Diesel-Stirling-electric main engine to a maximum billed speed of 20 knots. They are manned by 65 sailors.

Japan has commissioned 9 units in the class so far while a total of 13 are planned to be operated by 2023.

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Jura said:

Today at 7:42 AM
plus now NavalToday story
Japan launches lead Maya-class ballistic missile defense destroyer

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The Ministry of Defense has decided to develop its own "cooperative engagement capability" (CEC) system that would enable Self-Defense Force (SDF) units to share enemy information in real time such as locations and carry out joint counterattacks against enemy weapons such as cruise missiles, according to ministry officials.

The ministry included 6.9 billion yen in its budget request for fiscal 2019 to conduct research aimed at developing high-speed, high-capacity communications devices necessary for a CEC system. The ministry wants to complete a prototype system by fiscal 2022, and begin operational tests aboard Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) destroyers in fiscal 2023. Eventually, the ministry intends to upgrade SDF aircraft with the Japanese CEC equipment and operate them along with new destroyers using an American equivalent system.

The ministry decided to go ahead with acquiring indigenous capabilities after examining the risk of depending on foreign supplies and the possibility of lowering costs to acquire Japanese equipment.

The SDF already have systems to share the location and other information about enemy assets captured by radars on ships and aircraft. But because of time differences, attack vessels and fighter jets need to update target location data using their own radars when they launch missiles. As many countries are improving their attack and evasion capabilities by making their missiles faster or their vessels and aircraft stealthier, it is becoming difficult for a single ship or aircraft to counter enemy actions.

The U.S. CEC system will be introduced for the two latest Maya-type destroyers to be completed in fiscal 2019 and 2020. The ministry is considering equipping up to 13 E2D early warning aircraft with the capability to be deployed in full in fiscal 2019 or later. But the American system is expensive with a price tag of several billion yen. As the Air Self-Defense Force gave up equipping E2D aircraft with the CEC system, the ministry decided to develop a Japanese system.

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Japan military joins historic Philippine war games

SAN ANTONIO, PHILIPPINES (AFP) - Japanese troops stormed a beach in the Philippines on Saturday (Oct 6) in joint exercises with US and Filipino troops that officials said marked the first time Tokyo's armoured vehicles rolled on foreign soil since World War II.

The small Japanese contingent played a humanitarian support role in the drill after US and Filipino marines made an amphibious landing to retake Philippine territory from a "terrorist" group.

Fifty unarmed Japanese soldiers in camouflage marched behind their four armoured vehicles and picked up Filipino and American troops playing the role of wounded combatants while moving inland over sand and sparse bushland.

The exercise, codenamed Kamandag (Venom), marked the first time Japanese armoured military vehicles were used on foreign soil since the country adopted a pacifist Constitution after its 1945 defeat, said Japan's Major Koki Inoue.

"Our purpose is to improve our operational capability and this is a very good opportunity for us to improve our humanitarian assistance and disaster relief training," Maj Inoue said, adding that Japan was not involved in the drill's combat component.

The exercise was held at a Philippine navy base facing the South China Sea about 250km from the Scarborough Shoal, a territory claimed by Manila that was seized by China during a 2012 naval stand-off......

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Host nation South Korea ordered Tokyo to drop ensign linked to colonial rule and militaristic past

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has withdrawn from an international fleet review this week after rejecting demands that its warship take part without its “rising sun” flag ensign – regarded by many Koreans as a symbol of Japanese militarism and colonial rule.

South Korea – the host nation – had asked all 14 countries sending vessels to the five-day event, which begins on Thursday at a naval base on the island of Jeju, to ensure they display only their national flags and the flag of

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.

The rule – in effect a demand for Japan to remove the kyokujitsuki flag from a destroyer due to take part in the exercise – was introduced amid simmering bilateral disputes over Japan’s use of Korean

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during the second world war and

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called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.

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had conveyed its stance that “the Japanese side should fully consider the rising sun flag’s emotional connotation to our people”, the foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, said.

But

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, whose maritime self-defence forces (SDF) were permitted to fly the flag during similar reviews in 1998 and 2008, said it had no choice but to withdraw.

“When it comes to the ensign, domestic laws and regulations stipulate that it must be hoisted at the stern,” the defence minister, Takeshi Iwaya, said. “Regrettably, we have reached the decision that we have no choice but to cancel our participation.”

The flag, used by Japanese imperial navy in campaigns around Asia and the Pacific before and during the second world war, features a red disc and 16 rays extending outwards and was adopted by the maritime SDF in 1954.

“Members [of the self-defence forces] take pride in the ensign, and there is no way we will go there without hoisting the flag,” Katsutoshi Kawano, the SDF chief of staff, said.

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joined the South in demanding the flag be banned, with the state-controlled Uriminjokkiri website describing it as “a war-crime flag that the 20th-century Japanese imperialists used when executing their barbaric invasions into our nation and other Asian nations. Planning to enter flying the rising sun flag is an unbearable insult and ridicule to our people”.

South Korea’s navy said Japan’s withdrawal was “regrettable”, but added that the decision must not affect “promising ties” between the two countries’ navies.

“Japan wasn’t able to accept the fleet review principles notified by our navy and we couldn’t accept Japan’s position,” it said in a statement. “The naval forces of both countries will continue military exchanges and efforts to strengthen their friendship.”

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Jura said:

it's somehow related (LOL) to Feb 27, 2018


Does Japan Need an Aircraft Carrier?

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Jura said:

I knew I had posted about Raytheon's CEC for Japan for example Jul 31, 2018
while now
Defense ministry to test own cooperative engagement capabilities for MSDF ships

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so what's up? the same for Yesterday at 8:12 AM
I mean why not just to purchase more F-35s huh

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Jeff Head said:

Awesome vessels. ...

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Jura said:

I knew I had posted about Raytheon's CEC for Japan for example Jul 31, 2018
while now
Defense ministry to test own cooperative engagement capabilities for MSDF ships

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so what's up? the same for Yesterday at 8:12 AM
I mean why not just to purchase more F-35s huh

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Jura said:

yes Jeff, but in the post you quoted

(which is Saturday at 1:37 PM

)

I wondered why would the Japanese spend money on a domestic CEC and a domestic next-gen fighter jet AS AT THE SAME TIME they buy the CEC and F-35s from the US

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