Japan Launches Future Aegis Destroyer JS Maya.

By Ben Rimland
The future JS Maya was launched on July 30th from the Japan Marine United Shipyard in Yokohama’s Isogo ward. The ship, the first of its class of improved Atago Aegis destroyers, is the seventh of eight planned Aegis ships to be fielded by the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF).

The future JS Maya was launched on July 30th from the Japan Marine United Shipyard in Yokohama. Picture by our Japanese ship spotter colleague (and twitter user) きりしま @phantom2navy

The new destroyer class is 170 meters long, displaces 8200 tons, will operate with a crew of 310 sailors, and features a combined diesel electric and gas (COGLAG) propulsion system. Maya will also be equipped with Japan’s next generation ship-to-ship missile based on the current truck-launched Type 12. The Maya class is particularly noteworthy given that it is the first of Japan’s Aegis destroyers ready for ballistic missile defense operations (BMD) from the time of commissioning, and is also the first of Japan’s Aegis fleet to be equipped with Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) from the start. CEC allows a ship’s Aegis combat suite to receive targeting information from other assets, be they ships or aircraft. In Japan’s case, this information can now be provided either by American or Australian ships also equipped with CEC, or American and Japanese E-2D Advanced Hawkeye AWACS aircraft. The high fidelity of the system means that a CEC-equipped Maya class could fire on targets beyond the detection envelope of its onboard radar, relying instead on tracking information supplied by a faraway “seer.”

The future JS Maya was launched on July 30th from the Japan Marine United Shipyard in Yokohama. Picture by our Japanese ship spotter colleague (and twitter user) きりしま @phantom2navy

The Sankei Shimbun quoted former MSDF destroyer fleet commander and Kure district commander Admiral Tokuhiro Ikeda as saying that the Maya class will be a “symbol of Japan as military superpower.” The report further quoted Admiral Ikeda as explaining that the effect of the Maya class on Japan’s BMD capabilities would be “profound.”

Indeed, the report further explained how the move from six to eight Aegis BMD ships would affect the MSDF’s rotational schedule for these vessels. BMD ships currently follow a rotation of repair, training, and deployment. With a necessity to maintain a rapid response capability, adding two additional Aegis ships will allow the MSDF to cut down on training time for individual crews and increase on-station time.

Ben Rimland is an independent researcher on Asia-Pacific security issues. His academic research pertains to Japanese defense policy and American security policy in Asia. He can be found on twitter at @JPNsecuritywonk.

Additional comment by Navy Recognition:
Japan first announced its intent to procure two more Aegis destroyers in 2014. The 27DDG destroyer project started in 2015 and the first ship of the class had its keel laid in April 2017. The new Maya-class features growth space for advanced naval weapon systems that are currently under development in Japan. These next generation weapons (such as railgun and directed energy/laser) mght be incrementally added to the ships' arsenal as they are developed.

The future JS Maya was launched on July 30th from the Japan Marine United Shipyard in Yokohama. Picture by our Japanese ship spotter colleague (and twitter user) きりしま @phantom2navy