00:00Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force is building new destroyers with help from the United States.
00:05The end result could be Aegis-enabled ships armed with railguns and lasers.
00:14Japan's Acquisition Technology and Logistics Agency is working with the US Missile Defense
00:19Agency to develop the new destroyers, which are replacing the JMSDF's Kongo-class boats.
00:26Japan has four Kongo-class vessels in its fleet of 36 destroyers.
00:31The ships have a standard displacement of 7,250 tons.
00:36Each ship boasts four gas turbine engines and churn out a combined 100,000 horsepower, so
00:43Kongos can clip along at a top speed of about 30 knots.
00:48The vessels are kitted out with 90 vertical launchers containing a mix of air defense and
00:53anti-ballistic missiles.
00:55To counter surface combatants and submarines, Kongo-class destroyers also have anti-submarine
01:01rockets, torpedoes, and harpoon anti-ship missiles.
01:06But the Kongos are getting older, and Japan needs new boats to carry some of the new weapons
01:11it's been working on.
01:13Things like lasers and railguns.
01:16According to reporting by Militanari in Ukraine, Japan's ATLA is working with the US MDA to
01:23develop the new Aegis-enabled destroyers.
01:26The Aegis system is the backbone of US maritime air and missile defense systems.
01:32Any boat or facility with Aegis is essentially a node in the broader system and can talk to
01:38each other.
01:40It also incorporates several different missiles and interceptors into its portfolio of firing
01:46options.
01:47And it's designed to learn.
01:48The end result is a single interconnected system of disparate parts and launchers, all working
01:55towards a single defensive objective.
01:58And it sounds like Aegis will get a new ability soon.
02:02The Japanese Acquisition Technology and Logistics Agency recently announced it fired a railgun
02:07from a naval vessel for the first time.
02:10It was a historic moment in maritime weapons development.
02:14The US pursued railgun tech for years to no avail.
02:18So the fact Japan, a US ally, was able to make the thing work is a big deal.
02:24Railguns are electromagnetic launchers that use electricity to fire projectiles at extremely
02:30high rates of speed, all without the need for explosive charges.
02:34The result is a chunk of metal flying further and faster than any conventional round, which
02:40would be handy if a ship needs to defend against hypersonic missiles, like the ship killers China
02:46likes to tout in its military parades.
02:49Japan already said its future destroyers would be armed with railguns and lasers, so it makes
02:55perfect sense that it would want to coordinate with the Missile Defense Agency to make sure
03:00its new toys play well together.
03:02Japan and the US have strong defensive ties, and they've only gotten stronger over the
03:07last few years.
03:09There are even calls for the US to partner with Japan on building destroyers, similar to the
03:14AUKUS agreement with Australia for submarines.
03:17So if the JMSDF can pull off the Aegis railgun combo, it wouldn't be surprising to see some
03:24US destroyers armed with similar weapons in the future.
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