Japan's Giant New Destroyer Sends A Clear Message To China, The World

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/japans-giant-new-destroyer-sends-a-clear-message-to-china-the-world-2013-8


The Izumo has been in construction since 2009.

Sixty-eight years to the day of the Hiroshima bombing, Japan unveiled its new naval "destroyer" that happens to have a flat-top — dubbed "Izumo" — capable of carrying various rotary-wing aviation units, reports Eric Talmadge of ABC.

Consequently, it's also the biggest since WWII ... and since Japan's official army was disbanded.

The new boat comes as Chinese officials say the country is in "no rush" to sign a code of conduct guiding military behavior in the contested South China Sea.

From ABC:

[S]ome experts believe the new Japanese ship could potentially be used in the future to launch fighter jets or other aircraft that have the ability to take off vertically. That would be a departure for Japan, which has one of the best equipped and best trained naval forces in the Pacific but which has not sought to build aircraft carriers of its own because of constitutional restrictions that limit its military forces to a defensive role.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/japans-giant-new-destroyer-sends-a-clear-message-to-china-the-world-2013-8#ixzz2bHcsh5rs

[greytdemocrat]

1. It's obviously a Carrier. nt

[stevenleser]

3. What we think of as an aircraft carrier is a lot more than a flat upper deck.

There is a lot of infrastructure that goes into making a ship capable of supporting an air wing. Its possible this ship may be able to support six or fewer V-(S)TOL aircraft like the Osprey and F35B, but I don't think much more than that.

It's a fools errand against Japan's most likely potential antagonist, China, which has the worlds largest Air Force and would overwhelm the defenses of that ship without breaking a sweat.

[onehandle]

2. Helicopters, drones, VTOLs and STOLs. But how long before it's in space?...