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posted by Fnord666 on Monday March 05 2018, @01:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the big-flat-ship dept.

Japanese Ministry of Defense executives have outright admitted that despite the Japanese government's past denials that the Izumo class "helicopter destroyers" were not designed to accommodate fixed-wing short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) tactical jets, they actually were designed with exactly that in mind.

The Asahi Shimbun quoted Maritime Self Defense Force sources stating the following:

"It is only reasonable to design (the Izumo) with the prospect of possible changes of the circumstances in the decades ahead... We viewed that whether the Izumo should be actually refitted could be decided by the government."

When the Izumo first entered service, the vessels' ominous profile and massive proportions led many, including the author, to allege that these vessels were intended to one day carry fixed-wing tactical jets. It also wasn't really clear why the country would need larger vessels than the Hyuga class helicopter destroyers already in production if they weren't going to gain more offensive capabilities. Although they have amphibious capabilities, Japan's helicopter carriers are traditionally more focused on anti-submarine warfare.

Asahi Shimbun's sources went on to say that a consensus was privately reached among the service's leadership that the Izumo class would be designed for conversion into a fixed-wing capable aircraft carrier in the future but the Japanese government would deny this due to the issues surrounding violating Article Nine of the Japanese constitution.

[...] The justification of Japan's military posture, and the weaponry that supports it, all comes down to how one interprets "self defense" as per the Japanese constitution, but really, things have been rapidly changing for Japan when it comes to morphing its military into a far-reaching force with substantial offensive punch.

[...] Considering that Japan is looking to arm itself with long-range cruise missiles and more capable fighters in the near term, a fixed-wing capable Izumo and her sister ship Kaga won't be far behind, ushering in a new era of power projection for Japan the likes of which the world has not seen since the end of World War II.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 05 2018, @07:08AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 05 2018, @07:08AM (#647889)

    We only have 5,433 aircraft. That includes 913 fighters. Most planes are decades old, some from the 1950s, and most are running out of airframe lifetime. We've used up well over 90% of the lifetime of our F-15 airframes.

    We built 100,000 bombers and 100,000 fighters for World War II.

    We are completely unprepared for a serious war. Failing to prepare for it is as stupid as failing to prepare back in 1935, thinking that such a terrible thing couldn't possibly happen again. We have less than 1% of the fighters we used in World War II.

    It's been over 70 years since we had a serious war. We're getting weak because almost nobody remembers the horror. We ought to prepare for the worst.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday March 05 2018, @08:46AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 05 2018, @08:46AM (#647909) Journal

    We only have 5,433 aircraft

    How many drones you have and how fast can you scale up? Send 5 drones against a fighter and very likely the fighter will lose.

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  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday March 05 2018, @09:28AM (2 children)

    by TheRaven (270) on Monday March 05 2018, @09:28AM (#647914) Journal

    We built 100,000 bombers and 100,000 fighters for World War II.

    Those numbers sound very big in comparison to 5,433, but that's largely because of the high attrition rates. I'm not sure about the stats for the US, but I seem to recall that British airmen on average survived three combat flights. They were given a few weeks of training (which was possible, because the planes were very simple and the Germans were similarly poorly trained). Many of the British planes had canvas and wood wings - they were produced as cheaply as possible and were closer to missiles than planes in modern usage. From Wikipedia

    At its height, Bomber Command under Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris could put over 1,000 aircraft into the air over Germany. Over 12,000 Bomber Command aircraft were shot down during World War II, and 55,500 aircrew were killed, the highest attrition rate of any British unit.

    The numbers of aircraft are smaller now because they're more concentrated. A single F117 can cause as much damage as a squadron of Lancasters, more accurately, and have a far higher probability of returning undamaged.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 05 2018, @09:34PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 05 2018, @09:34PM (#648198)

      When (not "if") we get into a serious war, we'll be facing attrition rates that are horrible. Average survival of 3 combat flights will once again be normal.

      We can prepare for it, or we can lose the war.

      • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday March 07 2018, @09:59AM

        by TheRaven (270) on Wednesday March 07 2018, @09:59AM (#648935) Journal
        Those kind of attrition rates are not sustainable with modern aircraft. They are sufficiently complex and difficult to fly that it's now incredibly expensive to train a combat pilot. You can't send someone up after a few training flights and expect them to do anything other than lose their aircraft.
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