Japan has built eight guided missile destroyers, each with the same missile defense capabilities as the Burke-class ships. Over the last twenty years Japan has gradually built up a ship-based missile defense capability. Photo credit: DANIEL MIHAILESCU - Getty Images The ships will need large reservoirs of fuel for propulsion, combat systems, and radar. Third, the two ships will spend very long periods at sea, their radars radiating constantly, waiting to detect incoming threats. Second, the ships must carry a relatively large number of SM-3 Block IIA missile interceptors to provide sustained defense.
For one, the ships will likely carry the Raytheon-made SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), currently being fitted to the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The two destroyers are unusually large for several reasons. At the moment, the largest surface warship in the world is Russia’s Pyotr Velikiy battlecruiser, which is attached to Moscow’s Northern Fleet, and it's 827 feet long with a beam of 94 feet. Japan’s ships will also dwarf China’s Type 055 Renhai-class cruisers. The American destroyers displace 16,000 tons each, with a length of 610 feet and a beam of 80 feet. The US Navy’s largest surface combatants, the three Zumwalt class stealth destroyers, are smaller than Japan’s planned ships. Photo credit: Portland Press Herald - Getty Images
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