JS Tenryū (ATS-4203)

JS Tenryū is a training support ship of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, pennant number ATS-4203, built for anti-aircraft shooting training support. Her main job is to launch and guide unmanned target aircraft, and she carries four BQM-74E Chaka III targets that are launched from the rear helipad and can be controlled, up to three at a time, through a four-sided phased array radar on top of her structure. She is a flat deck ship with a single 76 millimetre gun on the front deck, and she was built to complement the training ship JDS Azuma as air threats and air defence weapons grew more capable. Sumitomo Heavy Industries laid her down at Yokosuka on 19 June 1998 and launched her on 14 April 1999, and she commissioned on 17 March 2000. She belongs to the 1st Maritime Training Support Corps of the Escort Fleet, with Kure as her fixed port, and was dispatched to help after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.