After 76 Years, Japan Has Airplane Carriers Again

• Last month, an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter from the U.S. Marine Corps landed on the Japanese aircraft carrier Izumo.

• The occasion marked 76 years since Japan last operated an aircraft carrier.

• By 2030, Japan will run at least two carriers, all with American assistance.

With a remarkable flight that resurrected Japan’s carrier aviation program last month, the United States Marine Corps and the Maritime Self-Defense Force of Japan originated history.

Japan operated an aircraft carrier for the first time since 1945 during the voyage that included American F-35B fighter jets and the Japanese aircraft ship Izumo. Japan was among the first nations to develop naval aviation, but due to its participation in World War II, practically all of its battleships, especially the carriers, were destroyed.

The flight occurred in the Pacific Ocean on October 3. Two Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni-based F-35B Joint Strike Fighters took off from the island of Japan, refueled in the sky, and then made an emergency landing on the JS Izumo. The F-35B aircraft executed a rolling takeoff after landing vertically on Izumo’s flight deck. The MSDF tweeted the following video:

Japan had the biggest and best-trained carrier force in the world in December 1941. Japan, which primarily relied on its fleet to project power, naturally found the idea of flying planes from ships appealing. The first specially designed aircraft carrier, Hosho, was created by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1922. Early carriers were constructed by other nations (such as the United States) using the hulls of several kinds of ships.

The remaining Japanese flat-tops were rendered inoperable or sunk by the combined power of the Allies four years later, leaving Japan with no carriers to speak of. Following the war, Japan’s newly democratic, pacifist government outlawed aircraft carriers as weapons of aggression. In the years following the war, the United States Navy—which had utterly outbuilt the Imperial Japanese Navy throughout the conflict—took the lead in the field of carrier power.

The development of the Chinese Navy, however, led Japan to reconsider its ban on carriers. Early in the 2010s, the Maritime Self Defense Forces—the Imperial Navy’s replacement—built two big vessels. Although nominally categorized as “helicopter destroyers,” Izumo and her sister ship Kaga had full-length flight decks, an island for managing flight operations, and elevators that could transport an F-35B from the hangar to the flight deck. Tokyo gave the go-ahead in 2018 for the conversion of both ships into aircraft carriers, which entailed adding F-35B assistance technologies and heat-proofing the flight deck.

42 F-35Bs were ordered by Japan from the United States, however, the planes have not yet been delivered, and Japan’s F-35 pilots lack the necessary training for short takeoff and vertical landing maneuvers. However, the Marine Corps has two F-35B squadrons based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, which is located on the Japanese mainland close to Hiroshima. Washington and Tokyo settled on the exercise after some discussion. Both nations benefit from it: Izumo’s crew was able to rehearse carrier operations in a manner that it wouldn’t otherwise be able to do for at least a year, while U.S. Marines demonstrated their ability to operate from foreign carriers.

Whether this prompts China to reevaluate its military strategy? Time will only tell. The genie of Japan’s aircraft carrier has now officially been let out of the bottle after a 76-year spell.

Since 2015, Kyle Mizokami has written on defense and security issues for Popular Mechanics. He generally supports anything that involves explosions or projectiles. The Daily Beast, U.S. Naval Institute News, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Combat Aircraft Monthly, VICE News, and other publications have published pieces by Kyle. He is a San Francisco resident.

Read the original article on Popular Mechanics.