Page 64 - NAVAL FORCES 03/2017

Regional Focus Asia Pacific

Sarosh Bana

Pacifists Pack a Punch

60 Seconds with the Japanese Naval Industry

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) has a fleet of 154 ships and 346 aircraft.
Its main tasks are to maintain control of the nation’s sea lanes and to patrol territorial waters.
It also participates in UN-led peacekeeping operations (PKOs) and Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIOs).
(All photos: JMSDF)

Japan’s naval industry is energi sed cause of which the two countres have not yet and IHI Marine United Inc. (IHIMU) – that
by the government’s accelerated signed a peace treaty to end World War II. merged with Universal Shipbuilding in 2013
warship-building programme that Japan is thus taking recourse to rapidly de- to create JMU. These five companies had been
redoubles efforts to reinforce its ployable naval and amphibious forces as part contrac ted to build the eight “Asagiri” class
destroyers, commissioned between 1985 and
of its defensive strategy. Its plan now is to
maritime defences. Here’s why ... produce two agile and heavily armed 3,000t 1991, which were an improved version of the
frigates per year from April 2018 onwards, “Hatayuki” class and have since been suc-
As a seabound nation consisting of four instead of the one 5,000t destroyer made annu- ceeded by the “Murasame” class.
main islands and 6,848 smaller ones, Japan ally until now for the Maritime Self- Defence A devastating industry slump during the
has a formidable task in securing its sea lines Force (MSDF). This highlights Tokyo’s 1970s and 1980s led many Japanese ship-
of communication by which it receives much aspirations for a compact but well-armed and builders to diversify; Hitachi reorganised its
of its oil from West Asia, coal from Indonesia, advanced fleet, the frigates being useable also businesses into environmental, water treat-
and grain from Australia. for minesweeping and submarine hunting. ment and industrial systems and processes. It
Its Ministry of Defence (MoD) is concer- Japanese naval shipyards like Mitsubishi merged its shipbuilding operations with those
ned with the “increasingly severe” security Heavy Industries (MHI), Japan Marine Unit- of NKK Corporation in 2002 to form the joint
situation surrounding Japan. Across the Sea of ed Corp. (JMU), Kawasaki Heavy Industries venture Universal Shipbuilding; Hitachi had
Japan lies an intransigent North Korea enga- (KHI), Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI), and begun life as Osaka Iron Works in 1881 and
ged in a massive arms build-up, while a restive Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding (MES) was renamed Hitachi Zosen in 1943.
China rears its head in the East China Sea, may tender for the contract for building eight Worldwide attention has been drawn to two
where it has long sparred with Japan over an of these 3,000t frigates, with an estimated unit new JMU-built helicopter carriers, Japan’s
island territory it calls Diaoyu and Japan calls cost of U$375 million. To ensure enough busi- largest military ships since WWII. The first-
Senkaku. Japan also contests South Korea’s ness to the yards to keep them operational, in-class 19,500t “Izumo” and its sister ship
control of the Liancourt Rocks, an islet cluster the MoD has stipulated that whichever one is “Kaga”, commissioned on 25 March 2015 and
in the Sea of Japan that it calls Takeshima and awarded the $3 billion contract will subcon- 22 March 2017 respectively, are deemed con-
Korea calls Dokdo, and has a 60-year dis- tract work to the other bidders. figurable as offensive aircraft carriers capable
pute with Russia over the Kurils island chain, Contracts have been parcelled out to of operating unmanned surveillance drones,
stretching from Hokkaido island to the south- multiple bidders in the past, as with MHI, a potential prelude to fixed-wing flights with
ern tip of Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula, be- Mitsui, SHI, Hitachi Zosen Corporation, appropriate deck alteration.
62 NAVAL FORCES III/2017