This article follows the article "Hobart, Type 52D, Sejong the Great: modern destroyers – Part 1" published on May 24, 2021, which presented the Hobart (Australia), Type 052D/DL (China), Sejong the Grand (South Korea) and Kolkata (India). The second part completes this panel of the eight main classes of Modern Destroyers, with the Kongo class (Japan), Arleigh Burke (United States), Daring (United Kingdom) and 22350M Super Gorshkov (Russia).
Kongo class (Japan, 4+2+2 units)
The Japanese Naval Self-Defense Forces are considered the 3rd most powerfully armed fleet in the world , on par with Russia and second only to the US Navy and Chinese naval forces.
And the 4 heavy destroyers of the Kongo class, to which are added the 4 heavy anti-aircraft destroyers of the Atago and Maya classes, contribute greatly to this position, alongside the approximately 20 ocean attack submarines of the class Soryu and Taigei .
Derived from the American Arleigh Burke-class destroyers shown below, the Kongo-class destroyers were the first non-American ships to be equipped with the famous SPY-1 radar and AEGIS system, which until now had only been fitted to Ticonderoga cruisers. and early Arleigh Burke.
The construction of the 4 Kongos began in 1990 and was completed in 1998, in order to replace the Amatsukaze class destroyers still equipped with the Tartar system and SM1-MR missiles, while the risk of having to face Soviet supersonic bombers Tu -22M3 Backfire-C and their AS-4 Kelt supersonic anti-ship missiles were taken more and more seriously by the Japanese navy in the late 1980s when the decision to build these ships was made.
161 m long for a loaded tonnage of 10,000 tonnes, the Kongo carry, like the American Burke Flight I, 90 Mk41 vertical silos to implement SM-2 anti-aircraft missiles or ASROC anti-submarine missiles, as well as SM3 anti-ballistic missiles since the 2003 modernization.
A 127 mm cannon, 8 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, 2 CIWS Phalanx and 2 triple torpedo tubes complete the armament. Like the Burkes, the Kongos also have an SQS-53C hull sonar system, and use an SH-60J naval helicopter to reinforce their ASW capabilities.
4 meters longer, the two Atago class destroyers were built from 2004 to 2008 to replace the Tashikaze class destroyers, also equipped with the Tartar system. Unlike the more versatile Kongo, the Atago were specialized for anti-aircraft and anti-missile warfare, and the protection of the Japanese coast against North Korean ballistic missiles.
For this, the ships were equipped with the SPY-1D(V) radar, an evolution of the SPY-1D which equips the Kongo, but with much better performance near the coast, in order to allow the ships to best protect the Japanese coastline. .
The 2 ships also carry the SM3 anti-ballistic missile natively, and have 96 vertical silos and not 90 like the Kongo. Although it has a hangar and a platform to operate an ASM SH-60J helicopter, it is rarely embarked.
The two Maya class destroyers were built between 2017 and 2021, to replace the Hatakaze class destroyers, the last ships of the Japanese naval forces to use the Tartar system. Derived from the Atago, the Maya take its main characteristics, including the SPY-1D(V) radar and the 96 vertical silos.
More modern, they can use the SM-6 missile capable of hitting ballistic missiles as well as ships and land targets. On the other hand, the two ships have a propulsion architecture radically different from that of the Kongo and Atago based on 4 LM-2500 gas turbines.
The Maya, for their part, use a gas-electric hybrid propulsion called COGLAG (Combined Gas turbine-eLectric And Gas), providing much greater electrical power than its predecessors, and therefore providing them with significant scalability. to accommodate, in the future, directed energy weapon systems, or an electric Rail Gun .
Arleigh Burke Class (United States, 75 units+)
At the end of the 1960s, the destroyer was a surface ship format that was no longer very popular with US Navy planners, who then favored the construction of guided missile cruisers, some of which were nuclear powered. like the Virginia, and very successful classes of frigates, with the Knox followed by the O/H Perry. In fact, from 1970 to the mid-1980s, the US Navy only launched the construction of 35 destroyers, 31 of the Spruance class, and 4 of the Kidd class.
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