This is probably one of the least shocking bits of naval related news of the last few weeks.
We recently reported that Japan’s Self Defense Forces were looking at the idea of refitting its Izumo class carriers, of which there are two, to accommodate the F-35B, as well as larger plans to purchase more F-35s, including between 20 and 40 F-35B models. With this in mind, it seems pretty clear that this was the plan all along, or at least it was envisioned as a major possibility when the ships were being designed and constructed. But this new information also points to the possibility that making the Izumo class ships F-35B capable will be far less complicated and expensive than some may have thought.
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the class’s hangar and elevators were built to dimensions that could accommodate the F-35B and the MV-22 Osprey—Japan already has MV-22s on order. Even the class’s flight deck can supposedly withstand the heat and pressure generated by the F-35’s scorching exhaust. The official also says the carriers’ deck would likely be modified with a ski-jump if the F-35B were acquired.
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Despite the Defense Ministry’s denial that the helicopter carrier Izumo, launched in 2015, was planned to be refitted into an aircraft carrier, former Maritime Self-Defense Force executives confirmed that that is how the blueprints were drawn up.“It is only reasonable to design (the Izumo) with the prospect of possible changes of the circumstances in the decades ahead,” a then MSDF executive told The Asahi Shimbun. “We viewed that whether the Izumo should be actually refitted could be decided by the government.”
This is good. We should all hope Japan builds more and is well along the path to a follow-on to the IZUMO Class.
Along with Australia, Japan is our best friend in WESTPAC. If things get sporty out there sometime in the next decade, a few Japanese carriers taking care of business would at a minimum take care of responsibilities we would otherwise have to worry about, at best – give any opponent a more complicated environment.
More units with more capability spread about a contested ocean is a very good thing.
