A Japan Marine Uniteda Japanese shipbuilding company, has launched the first two of a planned fleet of 12 ocean patrol ships (OPVs) for the Japanese Navy.
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The launch of the vessels took place this Thursday (13) in a ceremony that took place at its shipyard in the city of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo.
The vessels are part of a new class of JMSDF (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force) ships, with the ship type designation marking its first OPV (Ocean Patrol Ship).
Generally, the Japanese Navy names its vessels after celestial and meteorological phenomena, mountains, rivers or regions. However, the new class of patrol ships were named after trees.
According to information on the website Naval Newsthe first ship was named Sakura (cherry blossoms) in honor of the cherry blossom (cherry blossoms), national flower of Japan. The second ship was named Tachibana (Tachibana), which comes from Tachibanaa species of tree that has existed in Japan since ancient times.
It is worth noting that the names were selected through internal deliberations in the JMSDF and officially approved by the Minister of Defense.
According to the office, the construction of the Sakura and the Tachibana cost about 8.9 billion yen ($57.7 million) each. But with prices rising, the Defense Ministry in Tokyo requested 28.7 billion yen for the construction of two more vessels in the defense budget for fiscal 2026.
The launch of the third and fourth ships of the class is scheduled for March 2026. Based on the National Defense Strengthening Program, formulated in December 2022, the Ministry of Defense plans to acquire 12 patrol ships over approximately 10 years.
Photo: Kosuke Takahashi This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
