WHAT ARE JANE’S FIGHTING SHIPS

Jane’s Fighting Ships published by Jane’s has become an international standard for the world’s navy. From the perspective of Janes, helicopter aircraft carriers such as “Hyuga” and “Izumo”, Aegis destroyers such as “Chokai” and “Ashigara”, and frigate such as “Abukuma” are all called “escort vessels” by the JMSDF.

It has been closed.Originally, it is not roughly called 48 escort vessels, but just like the navies of other countries, it is only necessary to classify them individually as 4 helicopter carriers, 38 destroyers, and 6 frigates.By the way, as the original name of “aircraft carrier”, an aircraft carrier is equipped with a large number of military aircraft as an air base at sea, and is equipped with an all-deck type flight deck and hangar that can be taken off and taken off. Refers to a ship.

On top of that, at Janes, Japan’s four ships, “Izumo,””Kaga,””Hyuga,” and “Ise,” are equipped with only machine guns and missiles for self-defense, and are regarded as warships mainly for helicopter operations. It is classified as a helicopter carrier.

Destroyer is classified as one of the surface combatants. It is a fast ship smaller than a cruiser, and its main weapon is artillery and torpedoes, and its mission is to destroy enemy capital ships, submarines, and aircraft, but it has many uses from reconnaissance to fleet escort.

Frigates have been referred to as escort warships, which are smaller and faster than destroyers in the United Kingdom and Canada, but are larger than destroyers in the United States, and their definitions differ depending on the navy of each country.

Why do all Japan call them escort vessels?

Since Japan does not have an “army” in Article 9 of the Constitution and cannot have a “strength” that exceeds the minimum necessary, the mild expression “escort ship” is used for helicopter carriers, destroyers, and anything else.

The Self-Defense Forces, which are not recognized as an army in the Constitution, could not use the names reminiscent of the Japanese Navy, such as prewar aircraft carriers and destroyers, and used the name escort ship with their own definition. I’m falling.

DD (Destroyer), DDH (Helicopter Destroyer), DDG (Guided Missile Destroyer), DE (Destroyer Escort). For this reason, all 48 Japanese escort vessels are sorted into Destroyer.The original English meaning of the destroyer is “destroyer”. In Japan, even if it is called by the soft word “escort ship”, it becomes a destroyer in English, that is, a destroyer, and the sound of the word about the presence or absence of aggression is totally different inside and outside. Even though the defensive word “escort ship” is used in Japan, it is perceived as an aggressive ship called “destroyer” from overseas.

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Why does the JMSDF classify escort vessels as destroyers?

When asked by a spokesperson for the Maritime Staff Office, they added such symbols and classified them based on the “Instruction to set standards for classifying and naming vessels used by the Maritime Self-Defense Force” issued in 1960. It is said that there is. However, since the JMSDF counts all ships that are internationally regarded as helicopter carriers and frigates as escort ships, the number of ships classified by classification will inevitably differ from those overseas.At Janes, only Japanese destroyers with ship type numbers “DD (number)” and “DDG (number)” are considered destroyers. The escort vessels with the ship type number “DDH (number)” are classified as helicopter carriers, and the small escort ships with the ship type number “DE (number)” are classified as frigate.