Electronic warfare unit.
Electronic warfare unit.
Some pretty old yellow plastic there, nice to have experience on the field and using wood for levelling is ecological.
If the Izumos are partaking in an international conflict (not some kind of peacekeeping mission or FONOP), they would probably be operating in the 1IC (if not, obviously the 2IC, where Japan is) and would be well within range of the JASDF's E-2s and E-767s.
But, the whole idea behind the Izumos was, in the words of its advocates, to "give JASDF pilots a place to operate from in the event land airfields become disabled." The E-2s are not qualified for carrier ops, and even if they were, Izumo obviously couldn't accomodate them. So their conversion doesn't just have an issue, it has an outright contradiction in how it supposed to strengthen the JSDF. Six F-35s isn't going to matter if the rest of the country's air defenses have been entirely destroyed.
The whole concept of the JMSDF operating aircraft carriers dates back to the Cold War, when the biggest threat was the USSR's land-based bombers carrying AShMs. It was never envisioned as being useful in countering a navy like China's, with not only land-based AShM carriers, but also numerous carriers operating fixed-wing aircraft and ASBMs.
That it was floated as a counter for China either indicates institutional rot, a desire to LARP as the IJN, or both.
Moreover, China and Russia still operate non-nuclear subs, indicating their utility. Even the JMSDF's potential enemies think nuclear is not a necessity for an effective submarine.
The law explicitly states that nuclear power cannot be used for non-peaceful purposes.
The only way they could reinterpret it is by saying that because the submarine's weapons and sensors are used for combat, the power source just sits inside the vessel and doesn't directly kill people, so it is peaceful. That would be an absurd stretch, like saying a person is not guilty of murder because the gun killed the victim.
i always saw the izumo as just a way to start shifting the overton window on rearmament for japan. whether or not the izumo itself is effective as a carrier is immaterial compared to the intent it signals.
2023 PLA tender: Design of a battalion-level intelligent network system solution based on a large model.
2025 JSDF: Yamamoto-san, have you found that floppy disk?
JSDF's outdated equipment and lack of manpower are already the norm, but it is a bit unexpected to this extent.
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