26DDH Aircraft Carrier
26DDH is a new major Japanese destroyer program. The 26DDH is being designed with its primary function to provide long-range air-defense, with secondary roles, providing anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and serving as a command and control vessel. This vessel is designed with lessons and technologies derived from other recent destroyer programs (the Atago class, the Hyuga class, the Akizuki class and the Izumo Class) while also representing a doctrinal shift in Japanese maritime defense thinking. This shift will blend the technologies already implemented in other new Japanese military ship designs in a unique way, allowing the ships to fulfill their missions. As such, these vessels will not be comparable to any other JMSDF class in service today. One way of explaining their primary function is to compare them to historical precedents. If existing Japanese helicopter destroyers like the Hyuga and Izumo classes would be compared to the escort carriers during World War II, then these new vessels would be comparable to the Sea Control ship proposed in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s by the US Navy.
Accordingly, the ship’s primary mission is to harness its survivability, range, and the power of naval aviation in order to defend Japanese territory and sea lanes. As such, each ship will be designed to carry one squadron of aircraft for fleet and air defense, one squadron of aircraft for anti-submarine warfare, and one squadron of aircraft for long-range sensing. These three squadrons will make up the primary weapons system of the ship. The three aviation squadrons will provide four salient capabilities for the fleet; fleet/air defense, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, and recon/search functions. The 26DDH will focus on the deployment of fixed-wing aviation, with emphasis on extended range over existing JMSDF capabilities and all-weather operations. This air wing will be comprised of twelve (12) F-35B attack/fighter aircraft, eight (8) V-22 Osprey aircraft, and four (4) SH-60K helicopters. The Ospreys will provide enhanced cargo, ASW, ASuW, and AEW&C capabilities for the fleet.
In terms of the ship design itself, the 26DDH will be 3,000 tons smaller than the preceding Izumo-class, but they will have a larger air-wing. This will be accomplished by eliminating provisions for troop transport, or other cargo transport beyond what is required for the stated missions of the ship. Improved automation will also reduce the crew of the ship substantially. Despite its smaller size, the 26DDH will be longer than the Izumo-class to improve the ease of short-takeoff operations, thereby also increasing the range and weapons capacity of the aircraft deployed on-board. The 26DDH will also have a larger self defense capability than the other JMSDF vessels of the Izumo and Hyuga classes. This will consist of adding peripheral VLS (Mk 57) cells for an area defense capability as a compliment to the area defense capabilities of its AEGIS and/or Akizuki escorts. These VLS cells will carry both Standard and ESSM missiles. In addition, the vessels will carry two 21 cell RAM missile launchers, and two 20mm Phalanx CIWS.
The first ship is expected to be ordered in 2014, and commissioned in 2018. The cost of each ship will be $1.5 Billion. Two ships of the class are proposed to be included in each of the JMSDF destroyer flotillas. If this holds true, then it will mean that the production run of the 26DDH vessels will be significantly larger than those of the Hyuga and Izumo classes which produced two vessels each, and would produce a total of eight of these vessels
Specifications:
Displacement: 24,000t (full)
Length: 260m (825 ft)
Beam: 35m (123 ft)
Draft: 7.5m (25 ft)
Propulsion: COGAG, two shafts
Speed: 32kt
Range: 15,000km at 15 knots
Crew: 800
Sensors:
- ATECS OYQ-11 CDS Battle Management System
- FCS-3A Anti-air Warfare System
- OPS-50 Surface Search Radar
- OQQ-22 Integrated Hull Sonar
- OQR-3 Towed Array
Aircraft:
- 12 x F-35B attack/fighter Aircraft
- 08 x HV-22 Osprey Aircraft
- 04 x SH-60K Helicopters
Armament:
- 2 x Sea RAM (21 missiles each for a total of 42)
- 2 x 20mm Phalanx
- 8 x Mk 57 4-cell modules (32 cells)
