The ''Hibiki''-class ocean surveillance ship is a class of surveillance ships operated by the

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

. The ships have a

small-waterplane-area twin hull A small waterplane area twin hull, better known by the acronym SWATH, is a catamaran design that minimizes hull cross section area at the sea's surface. Minimizing the ship's volume near the surface area of the sea, where wave energy is locate ...

(SWATH) design.

History

The ''Hibiki'' class was developed in response to the launch of the s by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, and their deployments in the waters near Japan. The

Defense Agency The is an executive department of the Government of Japan responsible for preserving the peace and independence of Japan, and maintaining the country’s national security and the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The ministry is headed by the ...

announced plans to develop a surveillance ship in 1989. The first ''Hibiki''-class vessel was commissioned on January 23, 1991, and the second, ''Harima'', on March 10, 1992.

Construction

All three vessels of the class have been built by

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding () is a Japanese company. It is listed on the Nikkei 225. Mitsui E&S is one of the companies of the Mitsui Group. Established in 1917 as the Shipbuilding Division of Mitsui & Co. with the first shipyard at Tamano. In 1937 the shipyards became ...

at its

Tamano is a city located in southern Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The city was officially founded on August 3, 1940. As of October 1, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 60,101 and a population density of 580 persons per km². The total area i ...

shipyard.

Operations

''Hibiki'' and ''Harima'' operate out of

Kure, Hiroshima is a port and major shipbuilding city situated on the Seto Inland Sea in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. With a strong industrial and naval heritage, Kure hosts the second-oldest naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for the Japan ...

. The United States and Japan reportedly split the costs of operating the ''Hibiki'' vessels, which approximately US$20 million per year.

Characteristics

''Hibiki''-class vessels have a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of , a top speed of , and a standard range of . Each vessel has a crew of 40, including five American civilian technicians, and a

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

for

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s to operate off of. They are able to deploy on station for 90 days. The vessels have an AN/UQQ-2 Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS), which is installed in the United States. Data from the sensors is relayed through the

Defense Satellite Communications System The Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) is a United States Space Force satellite constellation that provides the United States with military communications to support globally distributed military users. Beginning in 2007, DSCS is be ...

, and processed and shared with the United States. The data is fed into the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System. Propulsion is provided by four

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

S6U-MPTK diesel electric engines.

Ships in the class

References

{{Hibiki-class ocean surveillance ships Auxiliary ships of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Auxiliary surveillance ship classes Ships built by Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding