Current progress on DDH-184 Kaga's conversion -
The work being done seems much more extensive than what was done on the Izumo, most notably the removal of the CWIS at the bow and other fixtures to make it completely through-deck.
Interestingly the forward sponsons on both sides that used to host crew-served weapons and other sensors have also been cut off entirely... maybe to make way for a larger sponson where the CWIS will be relocated?
The work being done seems much more extensive than what was done on the Izumo, most notably the removal of the CWIS at the bow and other fixtures to make it completely through-deck.
Interestingly the forward sponsons on both sides that used to host crew-served weapons and other sensors have also been cut off entirely... maybe to make way for a larger sponson where the CWIS will be relocated?
This one looks impressive. For some reason it seems the Mk-41 VLS hasn't been fitted yet.
I wonder if Japan will design their own VLS system similar as Mk-41 or Korean K-VLS. Such approach will help export prospect where interested country cannot or unwilling to equip US made weapons.
There are some reasons why it wasn't build with VLS in place from the start.
First of all they wanted a more compact hull which grew larger and larger with each iteration. At the start they didn't put much thinking about the weapon and there were some problems with answering the question of 'what should we put there?'. It seems like they decided that it will be settled after building first 8 ships. As it's completely new class there should be enough material from practical use to put the observations into practice (what works and what doesn't) and construct the latter 14 ships in a uniform manner. So the ships from 1 (2018FY) to 8 (2021FY) were set for installment of the VLS later.
However they included two sets of Mk.41 VLS (16 in the 2021FY supplementary budget so it seems like two ships of the "first batch" should be equipped from the launch. Those will be ships number 7 and 8. The remaining 6 ships will get their VLS in a few coming years. So it's coming earlier than it was previously predicted.
Because I can't edit my previous post - it should look more or less like this after this stage of upgrades:
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The first 2 ships will be deployed to Mine Countermeasures Group, so I assume they wont be fitted for now.
Where's the VLS?
IMHO, the moment they decided to add jet capability, that phalanx forward should've been moved down.Because I can't edit my previous post - it should look more or less like this after this stage of upgrades:
Gun mounts(as a fairly significant foreign object/debris source) have no place on the flight deck.