The Influence of History

The Spruance -class destroyers have probably the most complex missile loadout history of any non-air defense ship. Unfortunately, the numerous changes and variation have surprisingly little available documentation and I have been forced to rely heavily on photographs to fill in the gaps. Therefore, many of the dates in this post are only estimates. The Spruance -class was designed during the late 1960’s as a modern warship to replace the large number of WWII-era Fletcher , Allen M Sumner , and Gearing -class class destroyers that were swiftly becoming obsolete. Force structure analysis during the design process revealed that while air defense systems significantly increased unit cost, it was ASW that drove force size requirements. Therefore, it was decided to supplement DDG and DLG production with a more affordable DD design that eventually became the Spruance -class. In a drive for greater efficiency, the DD would also share its hull with a DDG design. While the related DDG was neve...

During the 1970's, several new technologies such as the helicopter, the gas turbine, and the lightweight surface to air missile became available, driving the creation of a new generation of warship. The United States led the way with the Spruance -class destroyers, and the British followed with the Type 22 frigates. In Japan, these developments took somewhat longer, but eventually led to the creation of the new type of general purpose destroyer. Hatsuyuki-class The first of these new ships was the twelve members of the Hatsuyuki -class, which entered service beginning in 1982. Unlike the preceding Japanese destroyers that relied on guns, Hatsuyuki was built with a substantial missile battery for countering air, surface, and subsurface threats. This consisting of an octuplet ASROC box launcher forward, two quadruple Harpoon canister launchers amidships, and an octuplet Sea Sparrow box launcher aft (on the first ships five ships this was the American Mk 29, while the later ships we...

While aviation-heavy escort vessels were employed by several navies in the 20th century, the JMSDF stuck with them the longest. Intended to operate as the centerpiece of units that included guided missile ships and general purpose escorts, the Japanese helicopter destroyers were primarily valued for their airgroup. However, they carried a substantial armament of their own and remained fully capable of engaging enemy forces directly. The Haruna-class The two ship  Haruna -class were the first such vessels. Commissioned in 1973 and 1974, their original missile armament was an eight cell ASROC box launcher with eight reloads stored in the superstructure. While this may not seem like much, Haruna  was the first Japanese ship to carry ASROC reloads, which meant that her missile armament was actually second heaviest in the JMSDF (after its lone Tartar ship, Amatsukaze ). Haruna in 1973: 16x ASROC Beginning with Hiei in 1984 and followed by Haruna herself in 1988, these t...