JS Murasame (DD-101)

JS Murasame at Pearl Harbor in 2006
History
Japan
Name:	JS Murasame
Ordered:	1991
Builder:	IHI Marine United
Laid down:	18 August 1993
Launched:	23 August 1994
Commissioned:	12 March 1996
Homeport:	Yokosuka
Status:	in active service
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	4,550 long tons (4,623 t) standard 6,100 long tons (6,198 t) full load
Length:	151 m (495 ft)
Beam:	17.4 m (57 ft 1 in)
Draft:	5.2 m (17 ft 1 in)
Propulsion:	2 × Ishikawajima Harima LM-2500 gas turbines 2 × Kawasaki Rolls Royce Spey SM1C gas turbines 60,000 shp (45 MW) 2 shafts
Speed:	30 knots (35 mph; 56 km/h)
Complement:	165
Sensors and processing systems:	OPS-25B Radar OPS-28D Surface Search Radar OPS-20 Navigational Radar OQS-5 Sonar OQR-2 Towed Sonar Type 81 Fire Control System
Electronic warfare & decoys:	NOLQ-3 ECM system Mark 36 SRBOC Chaff Dispensers AN/SLQ-25 Nixie
Armament:	1 × 76 mm 62cal rapid fire gun (OTO Melara 3) 2 × missile canister up to 8 Type 90 (SSM-1B) 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS 2 × Type 68 triple torpedo tubes VLS Mk 48 (16 cells)   • Evolved Sea Sparrow SAM VLS Mk 41 (16 cells)   • RUM-139 VL ASROC
Aircraft carried:	1 × SH-60J(K) anti-submarine helicopter

JS Murasame (むらさめ) is the lead vessel of the Murasame class destroyers of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF).

JS Murasame was authorized under the Medium-term Defense Buildup Plan of 1991, and was built by IHI Marine United shipyards in Tokyo. She was laid down on 18 August 1993, launched on 23 August 1994. She was commissioned into service on 12 March 1996.^[1] and was assigned to the JMSDF Escort Flotilla 1 based at Yokosuka.

Service

Murasame was a participant in the 1998, 2000 and 2003 RIMPAC naval exercises. On 13 October 2002 she also served as the lead ship in the international naval review celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

Murasame was dispatched on 16 February 2004, along with the transport Osumi, as part of the supporting force for the Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group.

In 2005, Murasame participated in the international naval review celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

On 24 January 2008, together with the fleet oiler Oume, Murasame was sent to the Indian Ocean to provide refueling and logistics support for Allied forces in Operation Enduring Freedom. She arrived on station on 21 February, and returned to Yokosuka on 4 June.

On 10 May 2010, Murasame, along with the destroyer Yugiri, was dispatched to the coast of Somalia to participate in anti-piracy escort operations. From 5 June to 16 September she undertook 34 sorties, and returned to Japan on 15 October 2010.

On 21 January 2012 Murasame was dispatched to Aden, Yemen together with her sister ship Harusame, to resume anti-piracy escort operations off the coast of Somalia. The context for this extended deployment off the Horn of Africa was the "Law on the Penalization of Acts of Piracy and Measures Against Acts of Piracy (Anti-Piracy Measures Law)".^[2] She completed 188 sorties, including a number of join operations with the Indian Navy and returned to Yokosuka on 5 July 2012. She remains currently assigned to JMSDF Escort Flotilla 1

References

• Saunders, Stephen. IHS Jane's Fighting Ships 2013-2014. Jane's Information Group (2003). ISBN 0710630484
• Heihachiro Fujiki (August 2003). "Development of multi-purpose DDs for "8-8 escort flotilla". Ships of the World (in Japanese). Kaijinn-sha (614): 94–99.

External links

• GlobalSecurity.org; JMSDF DD Murasame Class

Notes

1. GlobalSecurity.org, DD-110 Takanami Class
2. "Anti-Piracy Operations off the Coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden," Japan Defense Focus (Ministry of Defense or MOD), No. 19. November 2010.