February 21, 2008: The Japanese media
jumped all over the Japanese Navy recently, when a 7,700 ton Aegis destroyer
collided with a 37 foot long fishing boat at four in the morning. The sea was
calm, and the media was alarmed that the Aegis radar could not spot a fishing
boat. Pundits quickly pointed out that Aegis is an air defense radar, and not
much good at spotting surface targets (although it can do that.) Destroyers
have navigational radar, which should have spotted a fishing boat of that size,
especially in calm seas. The cause of the accident is more likely someone on
the destroyer bridge not being alert. That tends to happen at 4 AM, especially
in a new ship (the Atago entered service a year ago) with a new crew. Someone
on the bridge did spot the fishing boat, but only about 60 seconds before the
collision. Critics were all over the navy about how terrorists could use this
lack of attention to sneak up on Japanese warships.
This is the first collision of a
Japanese warship in twenty years. The last one involved a submarine colliding
with a fishing boat in broad daylight, in Tokyo Bay, killing 30 civilians. The
latest collision apparently killed the two men running the fishing boat, which
was about 40 kilometers off the coast.
