The new ship class – set to begin entering service in the early 2030s – will draw on design baselines from in-service destroyers and frigates, and will integrate different concepts and capabilities to provide layered air defence against changing threats, a senior Japanese Ministry of Defence (MoD) official told at a recent conference.
The 13DDX advanced destroyer concept will draw on designs from the Asahi/25DD-class destroyers and Mogami/30FFM-class frigates, Vice Admiral Shinichi Imayoshi – Director General for Naval Systems at the MoD’s Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Agency (ATLA) – told at the Naval Leaders’ Combined Naval Event 24 (CNE 24) conference in the UK in late May.
These two ship classes began entering service in 2018 and 2022, respectively.
The 13DDX destroyer will be required to enable the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) to counter significant, global-scale changes in the strategic environment, including what Vice Adm Imayoshi referred to as “new ways of warfare”. The MoD and JMSDF are viewing this strategic environment in two operational contexts.
First, Vice Adm Imayoshi noted that China, North Korea, and Russia have been rapidly developing a broad range of military capabilities, such as: missile technologies, including hypersonic systems; and strengthened A2/AD capabilities, including electronic warfare (EW). Second, he explained that Russia’s war in Ukraine has exposed new operational realities, including large-scale use of ballistic and cruise missiles, EW- and cyber warfare-based asymmetric attacks, hybrid warfare operations including in the information space, and the use of uncrewed systems.
The new destroyer will be designed to provide layered air-defence capability to enable penetration and sustainability inside adversary anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) coverage, and connectivity to enable distributed maritime operations (DMO) to counter concentrations and movements of adversary forces, said Vice Adm Imayoshi.
Combining these trends and requirements, the admiral explained, the JMSDF is seeking to develop a future force structure that includes improved platform resilience and sustainability enabled by air-defence capability, plus DMO capacity delivered through enhanced connectivity, networking, and information warfare. This force structure will be underpinned by defence capability development requirements set out in Japan’s December 2022 National Security Strategy, which emphasized several priorities including information warfare, underwater dominance, uncrewed systems, logistics, and air defence.
For the new destroyer, air defence and information warfare (including EW) will be two primary requirements, said Vice Adm Imayoshi. “As an air-defence ship, it is essential to achieve advanced air-defence capabilities,” he said. Such advanced capabilities encompass stand-off air-defence capacity with new surface-to-air missiles (NSAMs), along with an overall integrated air/missile defence (IAMD) capability incorporating high-speed manoeuvring target detection radars and fire-control networks.
“It is necessary to ensure the future destroyer …. will have sustainability, resilience, and expandability for future equipment as an air-defence ship so it can respond in various operations, including DMO,”
Vice Adm Imayoshi.
Further future requirements for 13DDX include a compact design; signature reduction, including low radar cross section; increased automation; the use of new technologies, such as uncrewed systems, directed energy weapons (DEW), and rail guns; and new concepts like integrating the ship’s combat management system with artificial intelligence to build situational awareness and decision-making.
Integrating these and other capabilities will enable the JMSDF’s future destroyer to meet concepts of operations requirements including: constructing fire-control networks between general-purpose destroyers and other vessels, enabling those other vessels to expand their response capacities (like NSAM) through enhanced networked warfare; developing capability to counter improved missile threats, including from hypersonic systems, through integrating high-speed manoeuvring target detection radar and NSAM capabilities; and using non-kinetic means to tackle uncrewed air system threats.
As regards drawing specifically on existing designs from the JMSDF’s newest in-service ships, Vice Adm Imayoshi highlighted the functions and capabilities for high-end combat that the 25DDs deliver, and the compact size and reduced signature inbuilt into the 30FFM frigates. Japan is already in the process of developing a new frigate – under the 06FFM programme – that is designed with increased automation and reduced signature to enable it to operate effectively in contested regions.
As well as building mass through increasing capability and connectivity, the JMSDF is looking to add mass through increasing platforms numbers. Vice Adm Imayoshi said the navy will increase both destroyer and frigate numbers. Boosting platform numbers will enable the JMSDF to support operational requirements like DMO, he added.
“The concept of DMO in the JMSDF is to utilise distributed manoeuvre of maritime units so as to oppose the concentrations and movement of adversary A2/AD capabilities,” said Vice Adm Imayoshi. This is part of a broader approach of deploying JMSDF assets and capability in a manner that will change an adversary’s cost calculations, including buying time for large task forces to bring flexible deterrence options to bear, Vice Adm Imayoshi explained.
Naval News‘ interview with Vice Adm Imayoshi at CNE 2024:
