The ''Awaji'' class is a class of

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

s of 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) ...

Development

The ''Awaji'' class is the successor to the . The hulls are constructed of

fiber-reinforced plastic Fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP; also called fibre-reinforced polymer, or in American English ''fiber'') is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. The fibres are usually glass (in fibreglass), carbon (in carbon-fibre ...

(FRP) along the lines of the . Since many

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ve ...

s are of the magnetic type, it was necessary to avoid the use of metal in the hull of minesweepers that dispose of that type, and previously, most of them were constructed of wood. By making the ''Awaji'' class FRP, the standard displacement is reduced by 30% and the life of the hull is extended, although it has almost the same dimensions as the previous wooden ''Yaeyama'' class. In the image diagram of the budget request for the 2013 government budget, stealth was improved, but in the budget request for the following 2014, the ''Enoshima'' class was enlarged. It is one of the largest FRP ships in the world.

Japan Marine United (informally JMU) is a Japanese ship building marine engineering and service company headquartered in Yokohama, Japan. It's Japan’s second largest shipbuilder after Imabari Shipbuilding, with shipyard facilities in Kure, Hiroshima, Yokoh ...

(JMU), which possesses the construction technology and equipment for large FRP vessels, handed over the third ship to the Maritime Self-Defense Force on 16 March 2021. The

Ministry of Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

and the Maritime Self-Defense Force budgeted 12.6 billion yen for the construction of the fourth ''Awaji''-class ship following ''Etajima'' in the 2020 budget.

Ships in the class

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Awaji Ships built in Japan Minesweepers of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force