The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) announced on X/Twitter on 6 April 2024 that the initial “special modification work on the destroyer Kaga was completed as planned on 29 March”.
The JMSDF added that it will “continue to systematically carry out the necessary modifications to the Izumo-class destroyer in order to acquire the operational capability of the F-35B”.
First-of-class JS Izumo and JS Kaga will effectively become Japan’s first aircraft carriers since the Second World War. Construction of the ships, which were designed as helicopter carriers and officially classed as destroyers, began in January 2012 and October 2013 respectively, with the two ships commissioned in March 2015 and March 2017.
However, following a change in Japan’s previously restrictive defence guidelines, it was officially confirmed in December 2018 that Izumo and Kaga would be converted to accommodate the operation of F-35B short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs). Having already ordered 42 conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) F-35As after selecting the type in 2011, Japan increased its JSF order in December 2018 to 147 aircraft, including 42 STOVL F-35Bs.
The process of converting JS Izumo into a carrier capable of supporting F-35B operations began in the first half of 2020, with its first-stage modifications completed in June 2021. These involved an upgrading of the ship’s flight deck and the installation of heat-resistant deck spots for vertical landings.
JS Kaga is now at this stage, with photos released by the JMSDF on 6 April showing the ship with a fully rectangular flight deck above its bow in place of the previous tapered/trapezoid design.
On 5 October 2021 a US Marine Corps F-35B conducted a take-off and landing test on JS Izumo, but the Japanese Ministry of Defense expects the completion of its conversion for F-35B operations by the end of fiscal year 2026, with JS Kaga presumably following a few years after that.
While JS Izumo is named after an armoured cruiser that entered the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) fleet in December 1899, the naming of JS Kaga has proved somewhat more controversial, especially with China. While it seems appropriate that the JMSDF’s former ‘destroyer’/aircraft-carrier-to-be is named after an IJN carrier that was converted from a battleship, the original Kaga was involved in the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 as well as the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
Unlike the Chinese, the Americans are probably less hung up about the name of JS Kaga, having sunk the original Kaga at the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942.
