Japan unveils new carrier-like warship, largest since WWII

[blackeagle603]

I wouldn't be surprised if that's some part of a loading or load moving gear. As it gets fitted out there's gonna be piles of stuff going on and off the ship and needing moved to elevators etc.

[Aesop]

Is it just me, or do some of those side views appear to have been photoshopped by someone into a strong resemblance to a video game?
I rwalize it's brand new and isn't all covered with dust, rust, exhaust, and accumulated crud yet, but the thing looks almost unnaturally plastic.

[tcourtplayer]

Is it just me, or do some of those side views appear to have been photoshopped by someone into a strong resemblance to a video game?
I rwalize it's brand new and isn't all covered with dust, rust, exhaust, and accumulated crud yet, but the thing looks almost unnaturally plastic.

It's how most new ships do/will look. It is due to the materials and paint used along with the shape to reduce its radar cross section.

[Aesop]

I'm thinking that on an 800+' ship with a couple of acres of flight deck, reducing radar cross section is a distant fantasy.
It may just be that everything's still new, but it just doesn't look natural to me. It isn't like they put it in a giant paint booth and sprayed the whole thing on one day with the same paint color lot, but it looks that way in the profile views. Fiberglass/carbon superstructure or outer layer, maybe...? JDLR.

[randy]

Notice the phrase was "reduce" not "eliminate" RCS.

Every bit you can reduce the RCS of the base target will make ECM (jammers, decoys, chaff, etc) that much more effective. Maybe not enough if nukes are being tossed around, but certainly enough to generate a miss on a conventionally armed missile, if even by a few feet.

If nothing else, it's like the story about being chased by a bear, the carrier doesn't have to be invisible, it just has to be less visible to seeker heads than one of it's escorts when it comes down to cases.

Electronic Combat is a game of small percentages in advantage meaning mission success/living and failure/death.

[Jericho941]

It'll take a bit longer for that ship to look "normal" to the rest of the world, because they've refined anal-retentive maintenance to an art form. I think they'd probably find the saying, "once over dust, twice over rust" highly offensive.

[Netpackrat]

It'll take a bit longer for that ship to look "normal" to the rest of the world, because they've refined anal-retentive maintenance to an art form.

Word.

[tcourtplayer]

I'm thinking that on an 800+' ship with a couple of acres of flight deck, reducing radar cross section is a distant fantasy.
It may just be that everything's still new, but it just doesn't look natural to me. It isn't like they put it in a giant paint booth and sprayed the whole thing on one day with the same paint color lot, but it looks that way in the profile views. Fiberglass/carbon superstructure or outer layer, maybe...? JDLR.

+1 to what Randy said.

It isn't about "stealth" but "reduced radar cross section." In the world of blue water ops, if you can make the carrier look like a cruiser or even better a destroyer, the enemy might just pass you over waiting for the "carrier" to show up. Sometimes that little delay or mistaken ID is all you need to gain the advantage, or slip away. As others have eluded to, there are many ways the US Navy does this with ships but we finally have the ability to make the radar cross section look smaller as well. Take a look at the Zumwalt class destroyers or the San Antonio class LPD's for what the future holds in ship design.

[Aesop]

I've seen the cutting-edge angly-gangly ships that look like an F-117 afloat.

You get what you can, and I'm sure it helps enough to make it worthwhile to do over doing nothing, maybe it's enough, maybe not. The proof will be in the pudding come the day, just like for our bigger ships. History isn't on their side.

Then again, we've put sailors in camo uniforms which only work when they fall overboard. I would've thought it would be simpler to just issue them lead shoes.

[Jericho941]

Then again, we've put sailors in camo uniforms which only work when they fall overboard. I would've thought it would be simpler to just issue them lead shoes.

The Navy was just getting a head start on this sequestration business.