Japan's New Carrier

98

Well my 1st Harpoon was actually from 98, for Win95/98, it´s called Harp97. Later upgraded to "gold" or 2002 version. Man I wish I had time to play it still, eg.playing Iraq vs. the coalition was nerve shattering I would really like to somehow sink one of the US ships in the gulf.... never managed that. All planes were shot down or had to retire, cause coalition air so mighty. I could bring some Mirages in range, to fire Exocets tho, but none reached a target The other planes had no LR missiles, so were useless. No one could come in range to drop a bomb ....

 

Command lookes good, but is a) too expensive for me and B) I would have no live left if I would play it in earnest (same was the case with WITP-AE lol)

I thought the updated GIUK missions in Harp were also great Fortress Kevlalik eg. I remember in one of the mission all my ship had shot all their SSMs, but USSR had still 7-8 ships left and seemed also to be out of missiles. However the AI cannot good enough know when it is time to give, so the USSR left over northern fleet headed on a suicide mission straight to Island where my ships could intercept them , also a sub got in range. Sunk 1 destroyer, but somehow Russians send helis (which later were shot down by my approaching surface fleet) and damaged the sub (688 class) badly... 1 torp hit only, but sub crippled and useless.

So I decided to close in - shoot the last SAMs left and had an old fashioned gun battle. However guns aren´t good modelled in Harp really, but it needed a lot to bring down the "Slava" class. Some of our ships were sunk by 130mm tho too.

 

For what would these nations need "reasonable" ships... I mean these are not the richest countries, or ? Guess coast guard and fast attack craft would be enough, some subs maybe. And 1-2 flottila leaders for the small guys. I don´t know where these countries stand in regards to pacts tho....

 

Funny that we have this perception of Japan and fear their re-armament yet we were glad to have Germany re-arm as a deterrent to the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact. Japan and Germany have both been staunch allies since the end of WWII. Why do we view them differently???

 

Yes indeed. Japan does build some powerful looking and attractive ships.

 

I don´t but it seems both Germany and Japan (maybe Italy too, but this was only a pro forma axis country untill Mussolini had gone) do want to play now more "active" roles again, which I in case of Germany oppose. This is mostly cause I live in a region which now belongs to Germany and don´t want them to millitarize again (we have enough poor and the education system got worse too, in short there are better ways to throw money out but for millitary)

....... Also I don´t think the Chinese will attack Japan tbh.

 

The big fear is the great improvement of China's navy in size and capability. They have also expanded their operations outside of their territorial waters. China has actually shown itself to be cooperative and I don't think there is any near term threat to nations in the area, just the potential if it's internal political climate were to change. It makes economic sense for the nations of the area to build and maintain smaller but capable navies that when combined would have the power to oppose China if any one of them were aggressively threatened militarily. At present China is happy to exploit it's economic dominance.

 

Well imho China was supressed quite a while by the west and ofc Japan, so no wonder they want also some "place under the sun" (as the Germans wanted in WW1)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_RIMPAC

China has been included, which in my opinion is a good thing. By including them they don't have to guess as to the intent, any saber rattlers in their government cannot paint it as aimed at them, and they can see first hand the capabilities that would be arrayed against them if they were to take aggressive action against one of the members in the future.

 

Their "place in the sun" includes the entire South China Sea; their "nine dash line" comprises essentially everything outside the territorial waters of the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia - countries which also experienced colonialism and Japanese aggression, if those are the criteria. China is using its navy and its military might to assert claims in disputed or international waters, so it's hardly surprising that their neighbors are building up their own forces - and looking to cooperate for mutual defense.

 

Thanks for the infos guys, this area is really outside my expertise. Good forum, you learn a lot here

Don´t know much about Chinese only that they come to Germany to buy Kuckucksuhren and drive FAST on our Autobahnen... Saw a docu about them, quite crazy rich Chinese....the Japanese at least are still looking at our cultural buildings (but maybe the crowds were also Chinese I watched).......and seem more "quite"..so to speak.

 

#26
China wouldn't attack Japan... But it would defend its' territory, which seems to be expanding...
New bases made from sand:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-navy-alarmed-at-beijings-great-wall-of-sand-in-south-china-sea/2015/04/01/dda11d76-70d7-4b69-bd87-292bd18f5918_story.html

 

Be interesting to see how these stack up against our (Australia) new Canberra class LHD's. I'd imagine when come to launching fixed wing aircraft the Canberra will have the advantage with the ski-jump however in defense the Izumo might be a bit better. Surprised we didn't a small VLS system to the Canberra's with the cea-far radar.

 

I don't know that "we" have this perception of Japan at all.

Encouraged by the American occupation authorities, the Japanese government in July 1950 authorized the establishment of a National Police Reserve, consisting of 75,000 men equipped with light infantry weapons.

In mid-1952, the National Police Reserve was expanded to 110,000 men and named the National Safety Forces.
-wikipedia

And so it went on for 50 years; expanding and developing capabilities, encouraged by the US.


As Tokyo debates the limits of its pacifist constitution, the United States is encouraging Japan's evolution away from its constitutional restrictions on military activities. -Stratfor article from 2003


Once what was a lightly armed "police reserve" and a "coastal safety force" are now the Japanese Self-Defence Force, 260,000 people and a nearly $60 billion dollar yearly budget. The fifth largest military spending in the world.

Looking around the world today at various societies, I can't say that there are many others I'd rather were spending this much. Democracy and human rights seem fairly well secured in modern day Japanese society.

 

Apparently one key factor is whether the deck structure and material can hold up to the downward thrust of jet engines, like an F-35 landing vertically. It's also a concern with the V-22 since it takes off and lands with the engines exhausting directly downwards.

One thing to look for on the Japanese carriers destroyers, if they ever remove that CIWS at the forward end of the flight deck, which would permit rollilng takeoffs.

 

Excellent point on the deck structure and materials. On the matter of the CIWS while one is located at the very front it is off to the right hand side not obstructing any rolling take off, What would make a rolling take off an impossibility in its current deck lay out is the way the front of the flight deck curves in at the front http://cdn.kaskus.com/images/2013/11/17/4421023_20131117020302.jpg thus making any kind of rolling start a high risk of failure.

Looking at it even if the material is good enough and structure strong enough the front left corner would have to be expanded outwards which would require quite a fair amount of work.