As Naval News previously reported, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), one of the U.S. Navy’s newest destroyers and is outfitted with the Aegis Baseline 9 combat system, was supposed to make a port call in Ishigaki Island from March 11 to 14 for the purpose of rest and replenishment, according to an official at Ishigaki City.
But on February 9, the city made a decision not to allow the destroyer to enter the port on the grounds that the destroyer’s draft was deep and exceeded safety standards for port use, an official at Ishigaki Coast Guard Office told Naval News on February 13.
Specifically, the deepest quay in the Ishigaki Port is 10.5 meters, but this destroyer’s draft is 9.8 meters. The Japan Ports and Harbors Association, a public interest incorporated association, has set the standard for safe use of ports as “required water depth = draft of the incoming vessel x 1.1”. Applying the destroyer’s draft to this formula, the required water depth is 10.78 meters, which exceeds the 10.5 meters depth of the Ishigaki Port. For this reason, the city’s port and harbor department ruled that the destroyer could not enter the port, saying there was no quay capable of berthing at the port.
For this reason, the U.S. Navy is planning an alternative method for the destroyer, which is to anchor offshore, transfer the crew to another ships, and then make them land on the island without docking at Ishigaki Port.
The Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper in Okinawa also reported on February 12, citing unnamed officials, “The destroyer will be anchored at a quarantine anchorage’ about 3 kilometers offshore from the berth of the Ishigaki Port.”
In any case, this will be the first port call to Ishigaki Island by either a U.S. military Aegis warship or a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Aegis destroyer.
Ishigaki Island, which is close to Taiwan as well as the disputed Senkaku islands, known in China as the Diaoyu islands, has geopolitical significance in relation to Beijing. Located on Japan’s southwestern Nansei Island chain, which spans about 1,200 kilometers extending from the southern tip of Kagoshima toward Taiwan, Ishigaki is also part of the so-called “first island chain”.
Over the past few years, Japan has been increasingly deploying Self Defense Force troops to the Nansei Islands. Thus, the first port call of the U.S. Aegis ship to Ishigaki Island appears to aim at dealing with China, with the Senkaku and Taiwan contingencies in mind by building a foothold in the area.
Meanwhile, China is rapidly strengthening its efforts to turn the area west of the first island chain into its own inland sea.
