Meet two of the destroyers assigned to the Japanese anti-piracy patrol off the Horn of Africa. At the time Google’s satellite did a pass over Djibouti, these two ships were in port.
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The ship above appears to be a Takanami-class destroyer, given the placement of her smokestacks and the protrusion her forward VLS makes. Likewise, the ship below appears to be a Murusame-class destroyer.
The imagery is either very old or very new, because the 5th and 6th rotations of paired destroyers both included a Asagiri-class destroyer, which has a large hangar and a distinctly different look. The latest 7th rotation is of sister ships Kirisame and Yudachi, both from the Mursame-class. One of the ships of the 6th rotation was Makinami, of the Takanami class; it’s possible that the imagery was shot just as the 7th rotation had arrived, and the upper ship is a soon-to-be-departing Makinami and the lower is a just-arrived Kirisame or Yudachi.
Takanami-class destroyer. Globalsecurity.org photo.
Murusame-class destroyer. Globalsecurity.org photo.
Bonus: scroll south in the map for a La Fayette-class frigate.
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A contributor and editor at the blog War Is Boring, Kyle Mizokami started Japan Security Watch in 2010 to further understand Japan's defenses and security policy.
Kyle Mizokami has 532 post(s) on Japan Security Watch
2 comments
Lewis says:
Jan 17, 2011
Man, you should switch to Google Earth! Loads more features, including the exact date the photo was taken whenever you zoom into a given area (this imagery is dated April 17 2009). You can also view the same area at different periods of time, which can give you an idea of what an area looked like 2, 5, 10 years ago.
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Samho Jewelry: Lessons for Japan | Japan Security Watch says:
Jan 27, 2011
[...] Japan Security Watch has previously reported, the MSDF’s Kirisame (DD-104) and Yudachi (DD-103) destroyers are deployed in the Gulf of Aden as part of a multinational anti-piracy effort off the coast of Somalia. Japan’s deployment [...]