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Reuters reports:
Japan plans to dispatch its largest warship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea beginning in May, three sources said, in its biggest show of naval force in the region since World War Two. China claims almost all the disputed waters and its growing military presence has fueled concern in Japan and the West, with the United States holding regular air and naval patrols to ensure freedom of navigation.
The Izumo helicopter carrier, commissioned only two years ago, will make stops in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka before joining the Malabar joint naval exercise with Indian and U.S. naval vessels in the Indian Ocean in July.
President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte said he may visit the warship. The Chinese navy plans to "shadow" foreign military vessels and aircraft. The U.S. is deploying an attack drone to South Korea to respond to recent North Korean missile launches.
(Score: 4, Informative) by richtopia on Tuesday March 14 2017, @08:47PM (5 children)
FYI, this ship is a helicopter destroyer. This means no turrets like the destroyers of WWII, but rather it has surface to air missiles and point defense against anti-ship missiles. More importantly, it has 5 helicopter landing pads, useful for the primary role of anti-submarine warfare and the secondary role of disaster relief.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumo-class_helicopter_destroyer [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Dunbal on Wednesday March 15 2017, @01:32AM (3 children)
Yeah, a 27,000 tonne destroyer (the same displacement as the USS Yorktown air craft carrier from WW2). It's not a destroyer. They just CALL it a destroyer to get around the limitations in their constitution. And this is not a 10MT thermonuclear warhead, it's a Peace Ambassador.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 15 2017, @03:23AM
The US does the same thing with the new Zumwalt destroyer. It's at least as big as a cruiser.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday March 15 2017, @04:27AM (1 child)
There's a photo of it floating around somewhere next to a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, they're the same size. It's a full-size aircraft carrier in all but name and the lack of a ski jump.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fnj on Wednesday March 15 2017, @05:53AM
Jeeze. It's not "the same size", either by mass or by dimensions. Not even close.
Izumo: 27,000 tons, 248x38 m
Nimitz: 106,000 tons, 333x77 m
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday March 15 2017, @04:10AM
That's what you think it is. They've actually refloated the the Yamato, outfitted it with FTL engines, and renamed it Uchū Senkan Yamato [wikia.com]. That'll certainly scare the Chinese back out of the West Philippine Sea.