143 Anno XVIII - 2008 - Marina Militare

enemy’s forces from landing ashore, ASW and
short-range lifting capabilities in support of the
Japan Ground Self-Defence Force (JGSDF) both
to prevent foreign invasions and to offer relief
to the civilian population in natural disasters. 26
Emphasis was given to the strengthening of the
navy’s ASW capabilities, especially in its air
component, with the procurement of helicopters
and fixed-wing aircraft, including 8 S-55A,
42 P2V-7 and 60 S2F-1. It is in the context
of expansion of its ASW role that in 1959,
the JMSDF started studying the feasibility of
procuring a domestic-built 6,000-7,000-ton
helicopter carrier (CVH). 27 The plan was not
adopted in the 1959 revision of the build-up
programme, but a firm intention to pursue such
a platform led about a year later the Maritime
Staff Office to inquire with MAAG-J on a joint
project for an 11,000-ton CVH, equipped with
HSS-2 anti-submarine helicopters to be build
with an American grant aid. 28 The JMSDF’s
laborious efforts notwithstanding, the CVH was
seen as beyond the scope of Japanese financial
CerImonIa Varo PortaelICotterI Hyuga, 23 agosto 2007
possibilities, and outside strict Japanese and
American naval circles it failed to gain support
from civilian authorities.
In the following second and third build-up
plans, pertaining to the periods 1962-1966 and
1967-1971 respectively, the strengthening of the
JMSDF gained higher priority. In particular, by
the time the JMSDF had to argue a case for the
third build-up, its leaders had digested the skills
of budget politics and unlike previous occasions,
they managed to secure all their primary
objectives by proposing less ambitious plans.
The CVH proposal was no longer reiterated;
instead, the plan called for a more financially
feasible and politically acceptable helicopter
carrying destroyer (DDH). The navy’s duties in
home waters expanded to include the defence
of straits and of the surrounding waters. 29 More
crucially, for the first time the JMSDF’s primary
roles included the ‘protection of sea lanes of
communications (SLOCs)’. 30 As a result of
the new missions, the navy’s inventory was
strengthened with fourteen destroyers, including
the first surface-to-air missile (SAM) units, and
3