Japan-UK security ties get boost with Rolls-Royce set to supply engines for new Japanese warship class

Britain’s Rolls-Royce has signed a contract to supply engines to power a new class of Japanese warship that will be among the largest and most powerful to be operated by an Asia-Pacific navy.

The two next-generation Aegis System Equipped Vessels (ASEV) have a combined estimated cost of 1 trillion yen (US$6.38 trillion) and are designed as dedicated sea-based ballistic missile defence platforms to intercept drones, aircraft, missiles and even ballistic warheads or satellites beyond the atmosphere.

“These ships have a greatly enlarged hull for machinery, which is important as the Aegis system sucks up power, so the Rolls-Royce deal is very important as the Japanese know they need the top-of-the-line power plant,” said Garren Mulloy, a professor of international relations at Daito Bunka University and a specialist in military issues.

“The big hull also enables the ship to have huge fuel reserves, which will allow it to stay at sea longer, as well as carrying more missiles, both air-defence missiles and strike weapons,” he said.

At 120m (394ft) from bow to stern, with a 25m beam and displacement of 12,000 tonnes, the warships will be among the largest and, thanks to the US-made Aegis fire-control system, also the most capable missile defence platforms in the world.

The single-engine variant of the power plant is already tried and tested in Japan’s Mogami class of stealth frigates. It also powers the Type 26 frigates and the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers operated by the British navy, and the US navy’s Freedom-class littoral combat ships and Zumwalt-class destroyers.

“Our aim is that within the next decade, it will become the dominant engine of choice across the Pacific Rim,” Rolls-Royce said in its statement.

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