japan's maritime forces are undergoing the largest reform in history
2024-09-12
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japanese maritime self-defense force ships conduct live-fire exercises. image courtesy of the japanese maritime self-defense force
comprehensive compilation zhang haotian
in early september, the japanese ministry of defense announced a major reform plan involving the organizational structure of japan's maritime forces, calling it the "largest force reorganization" in the history of the maritime self-defense force. by reorganizing different types of ships, the maritime self-defense force implemented japan's "defense construction plan" released in 2022 and laid the foundation for military expansion in the next decade.
since the 1960s, the japan maritime self-defense force has been composed of two major departments: the "escort fleet" and the "sea sweeper". according to kyodo news, the new reform plan will merge the two departments into the "surface fleet", and the original unit numbers will be discontinued one after another. at present, most of the modern main battleships of the maritime self-defense force are concentrated in the "escort fleet", including 4 "escort groups" and 5 "escort teams", in addition to missile speedboat units and "local teams" composed of old ships. a spokesman for the japanese ministry of defense said that "the surface ship force will be thoroughly reorganized" and all work is expected to be completed in march 2026.
after the reorganization, japan's surface ships will be under unified command and redistributed according to the characteristics of the ships. according to official information, the new "water fleet" will consist of three "surface combat groups", one "amphibious and mine warfare team" and one "patrol and warning group". among them, the three "surface combat groups" are front-line combat units, and the number of ships belonging to each group has increased compared with the previous "escort group" to achieve higher rotation efficiency. according to the japanese ministry of defense, in an emergency, these three "surface combat groups" can also act in coordination. the "amphibious assault and minesweeping combat group" integrates existing amphibious assault ships and transport ships. the "patrol defense group" is mainly used to perform surveillance tasks.
the british website "navy news" commented that the large-scale reorganization of the japanese maritime self-defense force is aimed at "establishing a structure that can centrally command and supervise all surface ships" to ensure that all types of ships can respond appropriately in specific situations. since the reorganization is guided by the functions of the ships, it will also help improve the rapid response capabilities of the maritime self-defense force.
japan's "defense construction plan" in december 2022 mentioned that in the next 10 years, the maritime self-defense force will have 6 surface ship battle groups, one more than the plan announced this time. therefore, this new reform is considered to pave the way for expanding the number of ships. as of mid-2024, each "escort group" of the maritime self-defense force will have 1 helicopter carrier, 5 general-purpose destroyers and two "aegis" air defense destroyers. it can be inferred that as the 4 "escort groups" are reorganized into 3 "surface battle groups", there will be one more helicopter carrier in the establishment. according to japan's "chief of staff of the maritime self-defense force" (commander of the maritime self-defense force), satoshi saito, this helicopter carrier will be incorporated into the "amphibious assault and minesweeping combat group."
it is also worth noting that in the recently announced japanese military budget for 2025, the maritime self-defense force applied for a large amount of funds for the purchase of new equipment. according to the u.s. naval institute news network, japan's two planned ships equipped with the aegis system received a grant of us$565 million and are expected to be completed between 2027 and 2028. other key projects in the budget include: spending us$2.17 billion to purchase three frigates, us$804 million to purchase a new submarine, and providing about us$100 million for the plan to deploy land-based mobile radars on southern islands.
us media pointed out that since 2012, japan's defense budget has grown steadily, reaching a record high of 8.54 trillion yen (about 59.5 billion us dollars) in fiscal 2025, accounting for about 1.6% of gdp. however, due to factors such as the weakness of the yen, the increase in military spending in the next fiscal year is lower than the expectations of the japanese government when it formulated the "defense construction plan" in 2022.
source: china youth daily client
