Kongō-class destroyer

The Kongō class is a group of four guided-missile destroyers of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, equipped with the Aegis Combat System and the first ship class outside the United States to have that capability. The navy began its Aegis programme in the early 1980s because it judged that its fleets would not survive Soviet air attack, especially by Tupolev Tu-22M bombers carrying AS-4 missiles, and construction of the first ships started under the 1988 budget. The overall design is modelled on the American Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, with a wider hull, a vertical mast and an enlarged superstructure so that the ships can serve as flagships. Four Ishikawajima-Harima LM2500 gas turbines give a top speed of 30 knots. In December 2007 Kongō successfully fired an SM-3 interceptor in a ballistic missile defence test, the first time a Japanese ship did so. The ships are named after mountains. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built three of them at Nagasaki, and Ishikawajima-Harima, now IHI, built the fourth.