.jpg) |
| JS Izumo (DDH 183) shortly after launch (File Photo) |
Ridzwan Rahmat
The Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) has begun sea trials of its helicopter carrier JS Izumo (DDH 183), a JMSDF official confirmed to IHS Jane's on 29 September.
The 248 m-long vessel, which displaces 24,000 tonnes at full load, is the largest Japanese military ship built since the Second World War and can carry up to 14 helicopters. Izumo and its yet unnamed sister ship (DDH 184) will replace the JMSDF's two Shirane-class destroyers, JS Shirane (DDH 143) and JS Kurama (DDH 144), inducted in March 1980 and 1981 respectively.
According to the JMSDF, Izumo 's sea trials are being carried out in preparation for the vessel's impending commissioning. "The trials have started and will go on for about six months before we commission it in 2015", Lieutenant Commander Yasushi Kojima of the Maritime Staff Office told IHS Jane's . However Lt Cdr Kojima did not reveal the exact nature of the trials nor the date that they started, adding only that they have "just begun".
Read the full story at IHS Jane's Defence Weekly