JS Asuka (ASE-6102)

JS Asuka is an experimental ship of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, pennant number ASE-6102, built by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, laid down on 21 April 1993, launched on 21 June 1994 and commissioned on 22 March 1995. Her blocked deck hull carries a bow and bottom sonar array under test and a four-layer bridge structure that held four active phased array antennas of the prototype FCS-3 fire control system, parts of which were later reused on the two Hyūga-class helicopter destroyers. She has tested integrated navigation systems, a COGLAG propulsion method, a new tactical information processor, the Type 07 vertical launch anti-submarine rocket and the Type 12 torpedo. She was dispatched for disaster relief after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. In October 2023 the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency announced the first shipboard firing test of a railgun, carried out on Asuka, and in 2025 she was reported to have fired a ship-mounted railgun at a target vessel.