Mogami Class Frigate: Separating the Capabilities from Hype

The Mogami class (aka 30FFM) is the latest Japanese Navy frigate, and one that Japan plans to mass produce. This video examines both its capabilities and its weaknesses.

CHAPTERS
00:00 – Development & Background
03:05 – Basic Characteristics and Stealth
05:44 – Capabilities

REFERENCES

Keyword: JMSDF, Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force

[ycplum]

One of the key feature of teh class is the high level of automation and small crew size. This is particularly important since Japan has the oldest population in teh world, reducing its manpower power pool, and the JSDF (as a whole) would have difficulty competing for manpower with the civilian sector.

The PLAN would do well to emulate this. While not presently having the oldest population, China has the fastest aging population and will be older than Japan in a few decades.

This consideration gets very little attention, but is becoming more and more critical as industrialized nations age.

[theredbar-cross]

The quality of the content on this chance is amazing. I hate half-assed videos that simp about this or that, especially with weeb shit.
Thank you for bringing some reality into the conversation.

[iamnobody]

I think Mogami-class Frigate is perfect for its Purpose, we have to remember that all japan's adversaries China, Russia and North- Korea is very close to japan, Russia is within 300km, North-Korea around 500km and China about 500km( from okinawa) and thus Mogami will most of the time operate near japan will be under land based SAM's protection and thus do not required extensive Anti- air capabilities which is also due given their main role which will be ASW. I think Mogami is perfect to combat North Korea who has large(nearly 100) but obsolete submarines in the sea of japan where Anti- air and Anti- ship operations can be left to Land based SAM's and the air force. Also the mark 41 vls can quad pack ESSMs which it can carry 64 of them for air defense if required but the Air defense role will be left to destroyers and SAM or the newly proposed FFM class frigate with 32 vls. I think Mogami's strength lies in AWS capabilities along with advance autonomous sub systems and they are really easy to build which is important in war time.

[jurgenblick]

It is good to see Japan going in the right direction.

[brianfoley]

The Mogami class is as the narrator states...a Frigate. Frigates have specific duties as the narrator states and are not usually thought of as Air Defense platforms. The other duty is to act as a "Scout" and to perform "Pickett Duty for the fleet.

[JasonSmith-xbzy]

thats a beautiful ship. I gotta hand it to the Japanese when they make ships they are gorgeous. Just like the World War 2 ships they made.

[shijiejin]

I think it is a more practical LCS rather than a true Frigate. ( if LCS ever has Anti-submarine modules and Mine countermeasures module, but hey, it never seems ganna happen)

[jasonsmith]

love the fact that JMSDF used WW2 IJN names for most of these ships

[WWeronko]

It seems the Mogami class is a good coastal defense warship as long as it stays under land based air umbrella or supported by an Aegis destroyer. The 16 cell Mk41 magazine if quad loaded with the RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles along with its RIM-116 SeaRAM missile launcher would give it a fair self defense anti-air missile system. If the Japanese Type 03 Chu medium-range surface-to-air missiles can be quad packed I haven't heard. For midrange submarine attack the Type 07 anti-submarine missiles may be loaded in the Mk41 or the SH-60K and L Seahawk anti-submarine helicopters could be used along with land based air. When looking at an individual warship it should be viewed as part of a integrated fleet during actual combat. The Mogami class in its final configuration will be a capable component vessel in the Japanese naval force.

[ゆきかぜ-cs]

とても詳しくもがみ型の欠点と目的が解説されていました。
分かりやすく素晴らしかったです。

[LauftFafa]

japan's navy is in full swing . every time i check their shipyards from google earth i notice many ships being built or maintained . same goes to china but not same for the old powers usa russia france uk

[jikovvv]

Your discussion is generally correct, but you are a bit wrong about the most important mission of the Mogami type.
Mogami's most important mission is not anti-submarine warfare, but mine clearance. You refer to the mine clearance capability as secondary, but you are wrong. This ship was built for mine warfare only. If it did not have the ability to clear mines, Japan would not need to build this ship.
In a war with China over Taiwan, mine clearance is the most important element and at the same time the most dangerous mission for a ship.
Why is Japan building these ships in large numbers? The answer is that mine clearance, no matter how advanced and careful the technology is, is a high-wear and tear operation, and it is impossible to fight through the world's toughest mine clearance war without a large number of ships.

Why did Japan suddenly need extreme stealthiness of ships in Mogami? This is another reason for mine warfare.
It is clear that China will use mines for A2AD in a Taiwan contingency, and mine clearance will be necessary even where China has air superiority. Similarly, mine laying must be done in areas where China has air superiority. Simply put, the USS Gargami must engage in mine warfare outside the air defenses of the Japanese and U.S. fleets.
However, larger ships for greater air defense capability are detrimental to mine warfare, and for this reason stealth was required like never before.

Certainly, anti-submarine warfare is extremely important, but the large amount of equipment for anti-submarine warfare is true for all ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the anti-submarine warfare equipment of the Mogami is average compared to other ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
None of the other ships, however, have a high mine clearance capability. (This is true of the main destroyers of any navy.)

Among the ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, mine clearance is something that almost only the Mogami can do. (This is true of the mainstay destroyers of any navy.) The IJN's fleet rarely ventures into mined waters because it is too dangerous for other, more expensive vessels to do so. The previous class of Mogami's vessels were also designed to clear mines.

[Richard-odyd]

Nice Ship !
As an old Boatswains Mate I can appreciate the clean lines . Ill bet she handles like a Jaguar XF

[peterl]

I think a suitable VLS load-out would be 8 ASROC and 32 quad-packed ESSM Block II SAMs. The 27 nm range of ESSM fits the X band AESA radar very well. As for the lack of a VSR, you mention CEC when in the company of the Aegis ships. But, in addition, I think that when the Mogamis are steaming independently on an area ASW patrol, they will use stealth and EMCON to disappear. They would use their panoramic EO/IRST as well as ESM to sense the environment. A powerful VSR hurts you in ASW. Submariners say it is easy to spot SPY-1 ships with the ESM receivers in their periscopes.

[robertopiedimonte]

I find those ships a perfectly fit for the frigate role, an ASW ship capable of patrolling western Pacific hunting subs, able to selfdefending from missile attack, treatening second line ships and land targets. The whole package at half price of a Destroyer. Per my opinion I'll prefer other 16 VLS for something like LRASM instead of 8 on desk AShM. Destroyers fullfil area defense mission with SM-6 missiles along with escort mission and all around capabilities. They are the one and only battleship nowadays!!! Eastern and western allies can build about hundred frigates to patrol seas but need a great number of Destroyers to escort aircraft carriers, amphibious ships, oilers, container carriers and bulk carriers (3/400.000 tons each about) around the world. Sometime a Frigate can be diverted to escort smaller (20/100.000 tons) commercial ships to secondary sea route, like small countries on Pacific islands.
Bye
Freedom everyone

[Leptospirosi]

Mogami is a very close concept to the French FDI: a way to have good capabilities while being affordable in numbers. The size itself limits what it can do in a fleet, due to lack of manpower and limited spaces, compared to more capable ships with double the tonnage, but also double the cost. If the 350M$ is accurate, you can buy two of these ships compared to a 600M€ Bergamini class, which is not a bad thing, if you plan your fleet to stay inside you exclusive economic zone anyway and you have a lot of islands to protect.
Where Mogami starts to suffer is when multimission roles are required, like Disaster relief or heavy duty fleet defense, but this is a matter of a short quilt. Even a Thaon di Revell PPA displaces almost 1500 tons more then a Mogami Frigate and it sports a proper C and X band radar suite. The point, anyway, is that Japan "HAS" more capable ships, and the Mogami is intended to fill the gaps, for which is a very competent little ship. The only thing I'd change is the 127mm gun for a smaller but more flexible 76mm (or two) which would better cope with swarming attacks, but I guess the 127mm was chosen made to underline its patrol duty role.
Still, as those 16 VL41 launchers will be added in future, I wouldn't be surprised to see a C radar module growing on the mast, side by side to the original X band antenna. Italy originally had similar concepts, with the PPA light (X band only) but upgrades to the Full suite (C+X) are already financed.
After all, if all it takes is a couple of antennas to massively upgrade the AA capability of your ships, why not?

[RogueArbiter]

This is an incredibly well-researched and put-together video. Thank you for this!

[MrEjidorie]

Mogami class frigate is expected to play an important role to contain formidable Chinese navy. I believe labor saving Mogami class frigate will solve manpower shortage of Japan Maritime Self Force.

[night]

The Mogami class has also a AAW variant with 64 VLS and new LRASM.
(I'm not really sure if it was new LRASM I saw in the video since it was in Japanese or just the same AShM with early variant just using a VLS.)

[alexandermarken]

As a convoy escort and general patrol vessel they will be fantastic. 16 cells are actually a good fitout for the operational system. I would expect 8 cells quad packed with self defence missiles and 8 asroc. the 32 missiles would be enough to defend against a assault on a convoy when working with an AEGIS destroyer.