After the victory alongside the United States, German Empire and Austria-Hungary over the "Nouvelle Entente" in 1948, the Imperial Japanese Navy found itself at odds with not only its old rival in the form of the United States, but now the Imperial German Navy after the new alliance between the two victorious nations. The IJN proved itself to be the dominant navy of the Eastern Pacific, with the Battles of Vladivostok and Pungdo delivering decisive blows to the Russian Federal Navy and the Chinese National Revolutionary Navy in the Second Great War. This left the Japanese high command with confirmation of their "decisive battle" strategy, and after the war had concluded saw a preference for the retaining of its massive capital ships, including the Project B-65 battlecruisers that had been commissioned from 1945 to 1947 under the class name "Azuma." Three ships were built, strongly resembling the three completed Yamato class battleships, and these ships were named Azuma, Hiuchi and Yake. While it was proposed for all of the ships to increase their main battery to 14" guns, this ultimately never happened due to the lack of significant threats from Russian and Chinese designs, and also because of the belief that the ships would act alongside the Yamatos who would have more than sufficient firepower.
Following their victory in the Second Great War, the Japanese elected to retain their capital ships but did not forego further development in ship design. Working alongside engineers from their Russian puppet state (the Kingdom of the Far East), they were able to develop modern destroyers and cruisers that incorporated technology that rivalled the German-American pact that included SAMs, advanced search and targeting radar, and VLS systems.
In 1974, the United States recommissioned two of its SGW vintage Iowa class battleships in order to fill the gap that was currently present in their shore-bombardment roles during the Second Brazilian Crisis. By this time, the Azumas and Yamatos had been mothballed and had not seen a modernisation since 1958. Yamato had been fortunate enough to have been converted into a museum ship and was on display in Kure, while Musashi was found to be too old and expensive to keep as a museum and was scrapped in 1965. Only Shinano remained in mothball condition, and was moored alongside Azuma and Yake near Hiroshima. In response to the recommissioned American battleships, the IJN General Staff ordered the modernisation of Shinano and Azuma. The decision to modernise these two vessels was that one super-battleship would be able to counter two Iowas, while one supporting Azuma would be able to provide air-defense and mop up whatever still remained.
In 1976, Azuma was towed into the Kure Naval Yard to begin her extensive modernisation. Her forward superstructure was modified to incorporate the newest radar systems developed by a joint project between the Tokyo Naval Electronics Bureau and the Far East General Electric Company, including the FM-332 navigation and search radar. The fire control director for her forward two turrets was modified to include a new ballistic computer, as well as radar targeting and guidance capabilities. In 1982, the new Type 57 CIWS system was added to the ship, mounted fore and aft, and it would support the two remaining dual-purpose 4 inch armed turrets on either side of the ship. The aft superstructure was also radically modified in order to incorporate the FM-887 3D search radar that was commonly found on the modern Japanese ships of the day. Between the FM-887's mast and the exhaust stack was a VLS system that was installed to incorporate a variety of missiles: most notably the MX-87 "Baika" anti-ship missile, the JM-55 "Funryuu" SAM and TM-78 anti-submarine missile. The ship would also be equipped with a copied ASROC anti-submarine launcher system, whose design was stolen by Japanese intelligence in the late 1960s. From 1982 to 1985, she was equipped with nuclear missiles.
Azuma would remain in service until 2003, when she was determined to no longer fit the modern doctrine of the IJN. She was decommissioned and eventually was able to be saved as a museum ship in Yokohama, where she remains today.
Thank you for taking the time to check out my design and her history. As this is my first proper upload to Shipbucket, I would be grateful for any comments or improvements you may have for this design!
