Japan Unveils Largest Warship Since WWII

Is Japan allowed to have ships large than American Coast Guard cutters?  I thought they were limited to ridiculously small militaries by their surrender treaty to the US after WWII.

(Hence why Germany and Japan have police carrying M16s…yea, they’re cops, ignore the C-4 explosives and Kevlar jackets, they’re just POLICE, really!)

Yea, exactly, does a super destroyer that could, with minimal modifications, be converted to launch F/A 18 attack jets or even worse, F-22 attack jets and strike deep into the hearts of their enemy countries violate their Maritime Self-Defense force limits?

I don’t begrudge them defense against China.  IMHO anything they can put out to defend themselves helps US defend them (since we are their army, navy and air force essentially.)

I am sure they do check passports.  They probably have a suspects head sandwiched between the autobahn and their boot while they do it, however.

Honestly, those are the only cops I’ve ever seen that I was kinda afraid of.  They don’t look anything like you would expect for policemen/women, hell I’ve seen Rangers and Airborne that don’t look that rough and tough!

What are you two talking about? German Police using M16?
They proudly using their good ol’ German stuff ,H&K’s and Walthers don’t they??
And about the GSG -9 stuff, I must say that sometimes germans describing weird stuff with weird words!  :-D really. But anyway ,it is similar to an American Anti Terror Force.
The SEK Sonder Einsatz Kommando is more like the american SWAT then the GSG 9 is.

This is not a destroyer.

Niitakayama Nobore �  :-D

Climb Mount Niitaka baby!!!

Yes it is, IL.  The war department said it was!  Just like in WW1 those crates marked “Water Tank” were not tanks.

@Imperious:

This is not a destroyer.

Actually you are 100% wrong.

It’s a destroyer.

Today’s destroyer would be what to a WWII cruiser?  I mean outside of it blowing up entire fleets and sinking wings of aircraft with narry a bruised knee of its own crew, lol.

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called boat destroyers in 1892,[1] evolved from the response of navies to the threat posed by torpedo boats. Growing from earlier defensive developments, the “torpedo boat destroyer” (TBD) first appeared as a distinct class of warship when HMS Havock and HMS Hornet were commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1894.[2][3] By the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, TBDs were “large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats.”[4] Although the term destroyer had been used interchangeably with the terms “TBD” and “torpedo boat destroyer” by navies since 1892, the term torpedo boat destroyer had been generally shortened to simply “destroyer” by nearly all navies by the First World War.[5]

Prior to World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations; typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of the guided missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships and cruisers. This resulted in larger and more powerful destroyers more capable of independent operation.

At the beginning of the 21st century, destroyers are the heaviest surface combatant ships in general use, with only three nations (the United States, Russia, and Peru) operating the heavier class cruisers and none operating battleships[6] or true battlecruisers.[7] Modern destroyers, also known as guided missile destroyers, are equivalent in tonnage but vastly superior in firepower to cruisers of the World War II era, capable of carrying nuclear missiles. Guided missile destroyers such as the Arleigh Burke-class class are actually larger and more heavily armed than most previous ships classified as guided missile cruisers, due to their massive size at 510 feet (160 m) long, displacement (9200 tons) and armament of over 90 missiles.[8]

So… It IS a destroyer.

And for the record of all time, the statement “This is not a destroyer” is false.

Also… for the record, I don’t see the big deal here?  The Izumo class ships are just replacing the Hyuga class ships that are already in service

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyūga-class_helicopter_destroyer

The only difference is that the Izumo is 30% larger.

Yep it’s not a destroyer. That link is FAIL as usual.

Yep it’s classified by naval experts as a destroyer, and again we have an imperious fail.

Your arrogance triggered the war, get over it. It’s a destroyer.

It is referred to as a flat top destroyer. Just because it doesn’t look like one of the Japanese destroyers from A&A doesn’t mean it isn’t.

Yep It’s a carrier and another Gargantua Fail. I’m glad you agree. The carrier triggered the war. You lose again.

And here is my proof based on just goggling “destroyer”

To be honest, the United States has destroyers that carry helicopters but are called destroyers.

However, FFS that flight deck is the WHOLE SHIP, that’s a carrier.  It might not be big enough to carry 38 wings of stealth bombers, it may not have the flight deck to fire off 108 wings of antiquated tomcat fighters, but it’s a carrier.  If it looks like a duck…

And for the record, strange looking things on the battlefield draw fire like chocolate draws the attention of 5 year olds.

what, you don’t understand the image?  It’s in plain Mathlish!

I think it is an attractive ship, but then I have always liked Destroyers.
I can never buy enough of them in my A&A games. Ask Garg he can testify to my peculiar fetish.

I am also glad Japan can buy big naval ships again. As Jen said earlier, they might just need them.