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Japan The Maritime Self-Defense Force
The Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) had an
authorized
strength in 1992 of 46,000 and maintained some 44,400
personnel and
operated 155 major combatants, including thirteen
submarines,
sixty-four destroyers and frigates, forty-three mine
warfare ships
and boats, eleven patrol craft, and six amphibious ships.
It also
flew some 205 fixed-wing aircraft and 134 helicopters (see
table 41, Appendix). Most of these aircraft were used in
antisubmarine
and mine warfare operations.
The MSDF is commanded by the chief of the maritime
staff and
includes the maritime staff office, the self-defense
fleet, five
regional district commands, the air-training squadron, and
various
support units, such as hospitals and schools. The maritime
staff
office, located in Tokyo, serves the chief of staff in
command and
supervision of the force. The self-defense fleet,
headquartered at
Yokosuka, is charged with defense of all waters around the
Japanese
Archipelago. It commands four escort flotillas (two based
in
Yokosuka and one each in Sasebo and Maizuru), the fleet
air force
headquartered at Atsugi, two submarine flotillas based at
Kure and
Yokosuka, two mine-sweeping flotillas based at Kure and
Yokosuka,
and the fleet training command at Yokosuka.
Five district units act in concert with the fleet to
guard the
waters of their jurisdictions and provide shore-based
support.
District headquarters are located in Ominato, Maizuru,
Yokosuka,
Kure, and Sasebo.
MSDF recruits receive three months of basic training
followed
by courses in patrol, gunnery, mine sweeping, convoy
operations,
and maritime transportation. Flight students, all
upper-secondary
school graduates, enter a two-year course. Officer
candidate
schools offer six-month courses to qualified enlisted
personnel and
those who have completed flight school. Graduates of
four-year
universities, the four-year National Defense Academy, and
particularly outstanding enlisted personnel undergo a
one-year
officer course at the Officer Candidate School at Eta Jima
(site of
the former Imperial Naval Academy). Special advanced
courses for
officers are also available in such fields as submarine
duty and
flight training. The MSDF operates its own staff college
in Tokyo
for senior officers.
The large volume of coastal commercial fishing and
maritime
traffic limits in-service sea training, especially in the
relatively shallow waters required for mine laying, mine
sweeping,
and submarine rescue practice. Training days are scheduled
around
slack fishing seasons in winter and summer--providing
about ten
days during the year. The MSDF maintains two oceangoing
training
ships and conducted annual long-distance on-the-job
training for
graduates of the one-year officer candidate school.
The naval force's capacity to perform its defense
missions
varies according to the task. MSDF training emphasizes
antisubmarine and antiaircraft warfare. Defense planners
believe
the most effective approach to combating submarines
entails
mobilizing all available weapons, including surface
combatants,
submarines, aircraft, and helicopters, and the numbers and
armament
of these weapons were increased in the Mid-Term Defense
Estimate.
A critical weakness remains, however, in the ability to
defend such
weapons against air attack. Because most of the MSDF's air
arm is
detailed to antisubmarine warfare, the ASDF has to be
relied on to
provide air cover, an objective that competes
unsuccessfully with
the ASDF's primary mission of air defense of the home
islands.
Extended patrols over sea lanes are also beyond the ASDF's
capabilities. The fleet's capacity to provide ship-based
anti-air-
attack protection is limited by the absence of aircraft
carriers
and the inadequate number of shipborne long-range
surface-to-air
missiles and close-range weapons. The fleet is also short
of
underway replenishment ships and seriously deficient in
all areas
of logistic support. These weaknesses seriously compromise
the
ability of the MSDF to fulfill its mission and to operate
independently of the United States Air Force and the
United States
Seventh Fleet.
Data as of January 1994
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