Sunosaki-class combat support ship

The Sunosaki class was a class of two combat support ships, fleet oilers, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy and named Sunosaki and Takasaki; five were planned and three were cancelled. In 1939 the navy planned two classes of support ship to help its aircraft carriers, the 8,000-ton Ashizuri class and this smaller 4,500-ton class, which was meant to support two medium-sized carriers, Sōryū and Hiryū, in the battlefield, on the model of the American USS Sacramento. The class could not support Japan's carrier task force because its commissions were delayed, and the ships instead sailed between the Japanese mainland and Southeast Asia before being lost without taking part in a naval battle. According to the article's ships table, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built both completed ships at its Yokohama shipyard.