Image source: topwar.ru
The Japanese Self-Defense Forces received the first three F-35B Lightning-2 fighter jets in a variant with a shortened takeoff and vertical landing. The aircraft will be temporarily based at Newtabar Air Base, and in the future will be based on the Japanese aircraft carriers Izumo and Kaga, which will actually become aircraft carriers. According to press reports, the transfer of three new F-35B aircraft to an air base on the island of Kyushu has begun. Four more are expected to arrive by the end of March 2026. Japan will become the largest consumer of F-35 aircraft outside the United States. A major contract has been signed for the supply of 105 F-35A and 42 F-35B aircraft.
The Japanese ships Izumo and Kaga, launched in 2013 and 2015, respectively, with a displacement of up to 27,000 tons, were formally designed as helicopter destroyers. Despite this, they were subject to increased requirements for the placement of vertical take-off and landing aircraft. This is noticeable in the size of the hangars, elevators, and decks designed "for the future." It is worth noting that the Japanese Ministry of Defense insisted that these were not aircraft carriers, which Japan refused to build after the surrender in 1945.
However, this does not change the fact that Izumo and Kaga are ships 248 meters long and 38 meters wide, very similar in size to the aircraft carriers Sekaku and Zuikaku that attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. In addition, test landings of the F-35B aircraft of the United States Marine Corps were conducted in 2021.
This is a turning point in the history of the Japanese navy, as the helicopter carrier Kaga is named after an aircraft carrier from World War II. Moreover, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, the ship's bombers and torpedo bombers were intended to attack the battleships Nevada, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Maryland and West Virginia. Now the helicopter carrier Kaga will become the first Japanese ship after the Second World War, on which Japanese combat aircraft will land. Perhaps the Japanese F-35B will also be based on the ships of the "Hyuga" class. These ships are smaller than the Izumo (displacement 19,000 tons and length 197 meters versus 27,000 tons and 248 meters), but with some modernization they can also be converted into small aircraft carriers.
Image source: topwar.ru
