I'm just as confused as you are Kaga. But food is food so open wide and down the hatch. Otherwise you won't be getting any Bauxite Pudding for dessert.

Keo said:

I'm just as confused as you are Kaga. But food is food so open wide and down the hatch. Otherwise you won't be getting any Bauxite Pudding for dessert.

This is an image relating to the recent launching of a Helicopter Carrier christened as Kaga.

http://news.usni.org/2015/08/27/japan-launches-second-helicopter-carrier

Riiiiiight. "Helicopter" carrier, with a very long flight deck.

styles_miner said:

Riiiiiight. "Helicopter" carrier, with a very long flight deck.

#NotACarrier

styles_miner said:

Riiiiiight. "Helicopter" carrier, with a very long flight deck.

Well, Japan is never prepared enough with China and North Korea rattling their sabers.

Shebadotfr said:

Well, Japan is never prepared enough with China and North Korea rattling their sabers.

Don't you mean South Korea? They are having problems on which side owns some islands there. I myself expect North Korea to at least, not on bad terms with Japan though.

Other than the WW2 bitterness shared among East Asian countries, can only remember the problem with Japanese peoples abducted by North Korea during the cold war era.
But that's a war to be fought by politicians, not military.

Besides, won't North Korea need to trample through South Korea first before they reach Japan ?

styles_miner said:

Riiiiiight. "Helicopter" carrier, with a very long flight deck.

Designed to find and destroy submarines...the most dangerous ships in the sea today.

She is almost as big as she was in the 1930s. Just the helecopters take up a lot of deckspace. Just look at all the American Assault Ships wit their long flight decks that held mostly helecopters, or the converted Essex-class carriers that were assigned to ASW work in the 1960s that had mostly helecopters and other anti-sub planes.

styles_miner said:

Riiiiiight. "Helicopter" carrier, with a very long flight deck.

I'm sure there's nothing to worry about unless suddenly they get an Akagi, Hiryuu and the other four.

Tapper said:

I'm sure there's nothing to worry about unless suddenly they get an Akagi, Hiryuu and the other four.

Japan isn't going to be building an army anytime soon. Nobody in Japan is stupid enough to want to go to war nor are they willing to pick a fight with anyone just because of pride or whatever.
If Japan does go to war they risk destroying many things they've finally accomplished over the past decades and would only further mess up their economy.

People that worry about shit that that are just as paranoid as people who are worried about Muslims taking over all of Europe and imposing Sharia law.

If anything, China should be the country we're all concerned about since they have the power, money and resources to actually become a threat. Too much of China operates on Chinese pride as well to the point where it is scary.

Keo said:

Japan isn't going to be building an army anytime soon. Nobody in Japan is stupid enough to want to go to war nor are they willing to pick a fight with anyone just because of pride or whatever.
If Japan does go to war they risk destroying many things they've finally accomplished over the past decades and would only further mess up their economy.

People that worry about shit that that are just as paranoid as people who are worried about Muslims taking over all of Europe and imposing Sharia law.

If anything, China should be the country we're all concerned about since they have the power, money and resources to actually become a threat. Too much of China operates on Chinese pride as well to the point where it is scary.

Should they wait for China to do something then? Like the same event in Pearl Harbor or the sinking of that luxury cruiser (with war materials)?

Tapper said:

I'm sure there's nothing to worry about unless suddenly they get an Akagi, Hiryuu and the other four.

The rest of the Midway Four already have kids.
Akagi: Patrol boat (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%B3%E3%81%96%E3%82%93%E5%9E%8B%E5%B7%A1%E8%A6%96%E8%88%B9_%282%E4%BB%A3%29 , scroll down to PS14)
Hiryuu: Fireboat (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiQL9dfoFpg)
Souryuu: Submarine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%8Dry%C5%AB-class_submarine)

Only the cranes don't have kids yet.

Tapper said:

I'm sure there's nothing to worry about unless suddenly they get an Akagi, Hiryuu and the other four.

Naming convention for these ships seems to be provinces...like the battleships of old. (Hyuga, Ise, Izumo, and now Kaga (who started as a Tosa-class batteships). If they continue with larger versions of the Hyuga and Izumo designs. Maybe one day there will be a new Yamato.

ithekro said:

Maybe one day there will be a new Yamato.

Japan will probably reserve that for the day we attain practical space travel.

JohnFreeman said:

This is an image relating to the recent launching of a Helicopter Carrier christened as Kaga.

http://news.usni.org/2015/08/27/japan-launches-second-helicopter-carrier

Hey, hey, hey, what's this nonsense about a carrier? No carriers to see here. It's a destroyer!

SevenandForty said:

Hey, hey, hey, what's this nonsense about a carrier? No carriers to see here. It's a destroyer!

A Helicopter Destroyer but has a large enough deck to carry all those helicopters kind of make it a Helicopter Carrier don't you think?

So it can fly ?

BTW, they still have to get through the war law. Read the news that there's been large scale protest against the plan to ratify law that allow the Japanese government to mobilize troops into war.

I did some research. Japan's major enemies, China and Russia, both have one fleet carrier apiece, which gives them an edge in the aerial aspect of naval combat. The Japanese Navy, on the other hand, has a more robust surface fleet than China or Russia combined. Both still have a large advantage in subsurface combat, which is what the Izumo-class was designed to gain an edge in. Now, you might be thinking that the fleet carriers that China and Russia have would give them an edge in an all-out naval war but keep in mind that there are only 5 active fleet carriers in the entire world that don't belong to the US, and I'm not even sure that the INS Vikramaditya or the NAe Sao Paulo count (the last being the French Navy's Charles de Gaulle). The US Navy, on the other hand, has 10 fleet carriers in active service that are individually second-to-none in combat capability. Keep in mind that Japan is America's closest ally in that stretch of ocean. If China and Russia ever get to point of deploying their carriers in operations against Japan, they're going to get the crap pummeled out of them by some of the 10 Nimitz-class carriers in the US Navy. In this context, helicopter carriers would be more than enough for Japan to gain an advantage in anti-surface and anti-submarine naval operations.

Eboreg said:

Snip

And there's the "Amphibious Assault Ships" which can carry air wings the size of other nations' carriers.