Striking images show the F-35 jump-jet’s first trials on a newly converted Japanese aircraft carrier
“Japan’s destroyer-turned-aircraft carrier just completed sea trials off the coast of California on Friday, the country’s navy said.
The JS Kaga was refitted with a flight deck that allowed crews “to conduct fixed-wing aircraft operations,” the US Defense Department said in a statement last month.
The Kaga is the first aircraft carrier to be operated by the Japanese navy since World War II as the country overhauls its maritime forces amid tensions in the Indo-Pacific. Central to the light carrier’s power is the short take-off and landing version of the F-35 stealth fighter.”
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“Converting the ship to accommodate fighter jets goes against post-war Japan’s pacifist beliefs, so its navy designated the Kaga as a “multi-purpose destroyer” rather than an aircraft carrier. Nonetheless, the Kaga is not expected to be deployed like a traditional carrier.
“Given its history, it’s significant that Japan has come this far, and they have the capability now that looks like an aircraft carrier … once it’s reconfigured,” Jeffrey Hornung, a political scientist specializing in Japanese security and foreign policy, told Time in 2019.
He added: “But, then again, they’re not [aircraft carriers]. They don’t have any of the infrastructure for it to be deployed as such. They don’t have the strike capability. They don’t have any sort of intention to go further than what it is right now.””
https://www.yahoo.com/news/striking-images-show-f-35-120401316.html