Last week, Australia announced a $6.5 billion deal to buy advanced warships from Japan. This is a move that will go a long way to make Canberra a Pacific maritime power and make Tokyo a major arms exporter.
The Australian Ministry of Defense said it would buy 11 of Japan’s Mogami-class frigates, which analysts say are comparable to what China and the US are putting in the water, or some compensation.
Australia’s Minister of Defense Industry Pat Conroy has announced a contract with fellow US-led quad defense group.
Australia’s main security concern is the growth of neighbourhood competition with China. This was a Chinese Navy task force patrolling the continent earlier this year, hosting a live-action campaign off the Australian coast, forcing dozens of passengers to decouple from their normal flight paths.
Canberra says the vessels “upgrade” Mogami-class ships (large than the versions already in operation with Japan’s maritime defense forces, with more fire resistance and a longer unreflected range of about 11,500 miles (about half the equator).
Japanese Defense Minister Nakatani reiterated Conroy’s sentiment and called the deal a “big step” to boost Tokyo’s security cooperation with special strategic partners, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.
The new warship, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Aircraft, will have a 32 MK 41 vertical launch cell that can launch surface-to-air missiles and outboard missiles, the Ministry of Defense said. These allow Mogamis to launch 128 air defense missiles. That’s four times the number of Australian surface vessels today can fire, Conroy said.
Analysts said Lockheed Martinmade MK 41 launch cell is large enough to carry a Tomahawk cruise missile that can significantly expand the target area of the warship over a 1,000-mile range.
Cedarskaushall, a maritime force researcher at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, said MK 41 cells could be used on long-range anti-submarine rockets to better hunt down escaped submarines.
The Japanese-made frigate has also been praised for its lean Manning, and requires a 90-year-old crew. Small crews are important for countries like Japan and Australia, facing military recruitment challenges.
“This is a much larger vessel and can be operated with a much smaller crew. This reflects how modern this vessel is,” Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marless said at a press conference Tuesday.
The Mogami rank has been favorably compared to other frigates in the region, analysts said, and praised Australia’s decision to go to Japanese design, which was competing with German frigates.
“Its stealth, reduced manning, modularity – all at a relatively affordable price – makes it an incredibly competitive product,” says Alessio Patalano, professor of strategy and strategy in East Asia at King’s College in London.
Carl Schuster, former US Navy captain and former director of the Joint Intelligence Information Center at the US Pacific Command, called it “slightly better” than China’s Type 054B frigate, giving it a particularly high mark on medium to long-range air defense systems.
“Compared to Chinese frigates, this is an agile and technically sophisticated solution,” Patalano said.
RUSI analyst Kaushal said the invisible technology (the software) of warships made in Japan could make more difference than firepower when it comes to combat. For example, Mogami’s sonar software could be better than enemies that separate ocean noise from actual hostile contact, he said.
Analysts pointed out the reliability of Japanese industry.
“Japanese shipyards do outstanding work and provide products within their allocated budget,” Schuster said.
“Mogami is cutting edge. It is based on Japan’s long-standing high-quality pipeline approach to shipbuilding and clear access to advanced technology from within and from the US,” said Patalano, adding that the current Mogami class ships are powered by British engines.
The Australian contract is a good foreshadowing, as it could become the new Japanese defense export industry, analysts said.
In most post-World War II, Japan banned the export of arms. However, in recent years, the policy has been relaxed, allowing items related to surveillance, reconnaissance and rescue to be sold overseas.
According to Tomohisa Wake, a senior fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the Philippines was the early beneficiary of this change, gaining air surveillance radar from Japan over the past two years.
Last year, Japan sold its first deadly weapon, the Patriot missile interceptor to the United States and was built under license from Washington to replace the patriot who sent it to Ukraine.
Sales of frigates to Australia handle the missiles.
An announcement from the Australian Ministry of Defense said the first three warships will be built in Japan, while the remaining eight will be built in Australia.
Patalano said not only exporting warships, but also building them to export technology, is also a challenge for the country’s arms industry.
“We’ll attack Japan in the space of major defense industry exporters,” he said.
Looking at the deal between Japan and Australia, analysts pointed out that the two US allies could be more sophisticated and efficient in military shipbuilding than their American partners.
The US Navy has no frigates in its fleet and has not had them since 2015 when USS Simpson, a class of Oliver Hazard Perry, was abolished.
According to the Government’s Office of Accountability, the constellations class, a Washington effort to build a new frigate approved in 2020, has undergone a design change at least three years later, despite it being launched.
Still, former Navy captain Schuster said it might not be able to deliver what Yoko is doing.
“In my opinion, it’s better than the class of constellations,” he said.
Patalano also noted the hardships of US naval shipbuilders.
“When it comes to shipbuilding, the US is not an innovative space of some of its closest allies, and now there is much more to learn from the US than Italy, France, the UK and South Korea (Korea),” says Patalano of Kings College.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the frigate deal is part of a larger investment in defense that creates 10,000 jobs at home.
Another leg is the hearing agreement between Australia, the US and the UK. Canberra later acquired and later built a submarine carrying its own nuclear weapons.
Australia announced the agreement announced this week that it is not binding, but it expects the Albanese government to sign a contract by next year.
Canberra expects the first new warship to be operational by 2029, a statement from the Ministry of Defense said.
The deal marks the return of Mitsubishi Heavy Machinery, a company with a rich naval history, to the global military market. This is the key force behind the empire’s accumulation of the Japanese Navy leading up to World War II, and is responsible for creating the largest battleships in history, Yamato and Musashi, a 69,000-ton giant with an 18-inch main gun.
They were the cutting edge of battleships and only participated in the war after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but the advent of aircraft carriers that convey torpedo bombers made them essentially obsolete before showing their true power.
Musashi was sank on a US plane after being attacked by dozens of torpedoes and bombs at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944.
Yamato was sank on an American career-based plane while committing a suicide planned for the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945. The plan was for the ship to become a beach and a Japanese fortress against American invasions.
