New photos released on platform X show the Japanese aircraft carrier JS Kaga undergoing sea trials.

The ship entered Japanese service as a helicopter carrier, but as of March 2022, it is being modified to an aircraft carrier to carry F-35B fighters. The main modifications concern the extension and strengthening of the flight deck.

JS Kaga technical characteristics:

• Length: 248 meters
• Displacement: 27,000 tons (fully loaded)
• Beam: 38 meters
• Draft: 7.5 meters
• Propulsion: 4 × GE/IHI LM2500IEC gas turbine
• Speed: > 30 knots
• Armament: 2 × Phalanx CIWS / 2 × SeaRAM CIWS
• Maximum transport capacity: 28 aircraft

Similar work is being done on JS Izumo, another ship of the same type. Thus, in the coming years, Japan will have aircraft carriers in service for the first time since the end of World War II. The said platform is the largest Japanese warship built since 1945.

In 2017, the ship was originally classified in the Japanese Navy as a “multi-role destroyer” to comply with the legal pretenses that require Japan to only have “self-defence forces”.

Yet, the name comes from the eponymous aircraft carrier built in 1928, which took part in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

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