I have seen that! It's only a matter of time before the Japanese amend their constitution to allow them to build true Aircraft Carriers, considering the Chinese and Indian Navies already have that capability. Korea also has a similar ship, the Dokdo. While everybody's attention has been focused on the Middle East, there has been a quiet arms race developing in the pacific.
That 'destroyer' has only slightly less displacement than an Invincible class carrier. In other words, it's a carrier. The fact that the USMC has been 'practicing for Joint Operations' by landing Ospreys on the slightly smaller Hyuga class 'destroyer' is telling. Wonder how long after we start fielding 35Bs do we start 'practicing' on Izumo class ships.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/article3829856.ece http://focustaiwan.tw/news/afav/201307020043.aspx http://www.janes.com/article/23451/myanmar-navy-starts-submarine-training-in-pakistan http://www.janes.com/article/13624/indonesia-preps-for-type-209-submarine-construction http://japandailypress.com/foreign-submarine-spotted-near-japanese-territorial-waters-1428827 It's getting hot in hur.
I thought it a bit strange that they were referring to the ship as a destroyer. The Russkies used to call something like that a "helicopter cruiser" as I recall - the old Moscow class was roughly similar.
The Japanese call them Destroyers because they are forbidden from having "Aviation capable warships" by their own constitution. The Russians called them Aviation Cruisers because of treaty constraints(Montreaux Convention) involving tonnage limits in the Bosporus.
From the article: This reminds me a great deal of the way Japan in the 30s built cruisers specifically designed for carrier conversion. It was a way to stay technically within the terms of the Washington Naval treaties, yet build a larger, more modern fleet just the same.
Actually, the Japanese built about half a dozen "Seaplane Tenders" in the thirties, which were promptly converted to Aircraft Carriers in the early 40's once the Japanese opted out of the London Conference. You may be thinking of the Mogami class cruisers, converted from 6.1 inch gunned light cruisers to 8 inch gunned heavy cruisers....once the Japanese opted out of the London Naval Conference.
Yeah, I knew I was mixing up a few different details, but couldn't be assed to look it all up when you'd be along to set things straight. Just the same, the point stands regarding similarities between then and now.
Bit off tangent but when I read this story this morning on the Seattle Times what blew my mind was that they decided to build a larger class of 'helicopter destroyer' in TWO THOUSAND AND NINE. In 2013 they fucking launch it. FOUR YEARS from 'we need a ship' to 'we've built a ship.' That's fucking NUTS!
Couldn't resist. Absolutely, the point stands. Although, not its not about fooling the western world, and more about fooling.....themselves?
so how long would it take to install catapults. I'm guessing the "ski jump" option is measured in hours?
Godzilla did not practice tentacle rape. Godzilla has no tentacles. Godzilla is a good monster, it doesn't matter how many stupid Japanese he steps on. They should have gotten out of Godzilla's way.
It would not surprise me that they've got plans that they update now and then for just this thing. Also of course they aren't burdened by mountains of red tape and politics.
I think if we settled on a design we could pump them out just as fast. It seems that the before it's built part is the part that takes the longest.
It took us 50% longer for a ship 1/10th the size and nowhere near the complexity (this is going to the flagship of their navy, and each one will command a naval group). Thinking of the LCS(s) here.
That's the fucked up thing, then. We have built hundreds of aircraft carriers, we are the experts in the field. Why don't we have an off the shelf plan?
Congress started throwing lots of money at the CVN-21 program in 2001, the actual concept goes back to the mid nineties. The USS Gerald R. Ford (first of the class) should be completed sometime in 2015. (keep in mind though that our Supercarriers are 5x the size of most light carriers)
