The Future Australian Navy Ep.3 Mitsubishi Mogami 30 FFM #defencenews #naval #australia #japan
Channel: Soldiers Five
Date: 2024-02-29

The Japanese designed Mogami class multi-mission frigate is an attempt by the Japanese to rapidly update their escort fleet.  

The Mogami contains a high degree of automation requiring a crew of only 90, an essential feature for a nation undergoing a complete demographic collapse,  

and a RADAR cross section reducing hull design using technologies originally trialled on fighter aircraft.  

The Mogami features an integrated CIC combining the ships ECR, communications centre, chart room and operations room via its multi-functional consoles and open-architecture software. 

Despite all these technological feats however the class has not been without it’s struggles with first in class Mogami suffering propulsion issues and launching well past schedule.  

This may not have been the only issue however as in 2023 the original production order was dropped from 22 to 12 in favour of a hypothetical future design. 

The ship also lacks firepower with only 16 VLS cells and a SeaRam for self-defence.  

On the positive side Japan has already entered a hybrid building program with Indonesia for 8 of these frigates  

which if handled well would be a big plus in the minds of Australian politicians signing off on the second pass to begin acquisition.