Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Set for Major Organizational Change

The brand new reorganization course of will abolish the Japan Maritime Self-Protection Drive’s Fleet Escort Drive (護衛艦隊 in Japanese) and the Mine Warfare Drive (掃海隊群). A brand new “Fleet Floor Drive” (水上艦隊), as tentatively named by the Japanese MoD, will likely be created as a substitute.

Established in 1961, the Fleet Escort Drive has an extended historical past and custom spanning 63 years. The title of this group, which has been lively on the entrance strains of Japan’s maritime protection for many years, will disappear.

On September 3, a former Japan Maritime Self-Protection Drive (JMSDF) captain and ship commander instructed Naval Information, “For us JMSDF officers who’ve served below the Fleet Escort Drive for a very long time, this may be thought-about a significant reorganization.“

The MoD defined that the aim of this large-scale reorganization of the JMSDF is to “set up a construction for centralized command and supervision of all floor vessel items akin to Fleet Escort Drive and Mine Warfare Drive” which were in place till now.

“This can be a full scrap-and-build reorganization of our floor vessel fleet.”

JMSDF spokesperson

The reorganization is scheduled to be accomplished on the finish of fiscal yr 2025, which is March 2026, in line with the JMSDF.

The precise particulars of the restructuring plan are as follows:

Presently, the Self Protection Fleet (自衛艦隊) of the JMSDF is structured within the following method:

• The Fleet Escort Drive (護衛艦隊) which consists of:
  • 4 Escort Flotillas (護衛隊群): Escort Flotilla 1 to Escort Flotilla 4,
  • 5 Escort Divisions(護衛隊), or Escort Flotilla 11 to Escort Flotilla 15.
• The Mine Warfare Drive (掃海隊群)

Along with these, there are the Minesweeper Division(掃海隊) and the Patrol Guided Missile Boat Division(ミサイル艦隊) below 5 Districts(地方隊) which might be below the direct management of the Minister of Protection.

These will likely be consolidated into the brand new Fleet Floor Drive below the Self-Protection Fleet, and all floor vessels will likely be concentrated there. Then, they are going to be reorganized contained in the power by ship perform.

Underneath the reorganization plan, the brand new Fleet Floor Drive will consist in:

• Three Floor Battle Teams (水上戦群),
• One Amphibious Mine Warfare Group (水陸両用戦機雷戦群)
• One Patrol Protection Group (哨戒防備群)

The first to third Floor Battle Teams will turn out to be the principle items. By altering the present 4 Escort Flotillas into three Floor Battle Teams, the variety of ships in every Floor Battle Group will improve. This may permit for environment friendly rotation of missions, coaching, upkeep, and so forth inside every Floor Battle Group. Moreover, within the occasion of an emergency, all three Floor Battle Teams will be capable to function on the similar time, the MoD mentioned.

The Amphibious Mine Warfare Group will merge the prevailing Mine Warfare Drive with transport and amphibious ships to assist mine warfare and amphibious warfare operations.

The Patrol Protection Group will likely be composed of vessels devoted to surveillance missions.

This new group will permit the three Floor Warfare Teams to give attention to coaching every day, and make sure that they will reply correctly to operations in the long run.

Moreover, by consolidating ships into the Fleet Floor Drive, they are going to be reorganized by perform, akin to amphibious warfare. The intention is to be extra agile and in a position to answer medium- to long-term calls for.

“The Fleet Escort Drive will merely ‘change’ into the Fleet Floor Drive,” a protection official mentioned.

The reorganization of the JMSDF is available in response to the choice within the Protection Buildup Plan (FY2023-FY2027) formulated in December 2022 to “reorganize the prevailing Escort Flotilla and Mine Warfare Drive into ‘Floor Vessel Models’ to function a central power supplier for patrol vessels launched sooner or later, destroyers and minesweepers.”

The Protection Buildup Plan additionally stipulates that over the following 10 years, there will likely be six Floor Vessels Models teams with 21 divisions, consisting of destroyers and minesweeper vessels.

In contrast, the JMSDF mentioned as soon as the reorganization is accomplished on the finish of fiscal 2025, there will likely be 5 Floor Vessels Models teams with 21 divisions.

The JMSDF presently has 4 Escort Flotillas, every consisting of 1 helicopter service(DDH), 5 general-purpose destroyers (DD), and two Aegis destroyers (DDG) for a complete of eight vessels.

Thus, if these 4 Escort Flotillas are transformed into three Floor Battle Teams, one DDH will likely be left over. Requested by Naval Information what is going to occur to the remaining DDH, Adm. Akira Saito Chief of Employees of the JMSDF mentioned at a press convention on September 3, “One DDH will likely be deployed to the minesweeping flotilla,” which is outwardly the brand new Amphibious Mine Warfare Group.

The put up Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Set for Major Organizational Change appeared first on Naval News.