It can hold 14 helicopters. It’s more than 800 feet long. It has a very flat top:
The destroyer Izumo will join Japan’s fleet in 2015. It was unveiled in a Tuesday ceremony in Yokohama, south of Tokyo. (Kyoto News photo via AP)
It’s Japan’s largest warship since World War II — unveiled on the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
But it’s not a carrier.
The destroyer Izumo cost $1.2 billion and goes public amid territorial clashes between China and Japan (China, for its part, appears to be always ready). Japanese officials insist the Aug. 6 unveiling was coincidental and had more to do with favorable ocean tides than World War II history, according to this AFP report.
They also insist the ship isn’t a carrier, according to London’s Daily Mail — it’s a “flat-topped destroyer.”
It’s an odd distinction, but not an unprecedented one: Previous, smaller flat-topped vessels were labeled “helicopter destroyers” by the Japanese.
Read more about the ship, and see more photos, here.
2 Comments
Lets see – 800+ foot flight deck (kinda like the USS America has). 45000+ ton displacement (kinda like the USS America has). Can handle F-35B (ops that is the USS America).
But it is NOT a carrier. Its as big as China’s carrier, India’s carrier(s), Russia’s carrier. But it is NOT a carrier. It is a Flat destroyer.
Sure it is 🙂
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