That Other AEGIS Warship Story

While Americans are observing the AEGIS Cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) as it may or may not shoot a satellite down tonight, there is a strange 'other' AEGIS story in the news. Specifically, somehow the JDS Atago (DDG-177), as in the new Atago class AEGIS destroyer recently commissioned by Japan, was returning to Japan from Pearl Harbor when it ran over a fishing boat and most likely killing the father and son crew.

Crew on board the Japanese destroyer that collided with a fishing boat before dawn on Feb. 19 may have seen the smaller vessel 12 minutes before the crash, the Japan Times said, citing a Defense Ministry report.

A crew member on watch saw a green light on the fishing boat at 3:55 a.m., the report said. The crew took evasive action at 4:06 a.m., one minute before the collision, the Times reported. Maritime law requires boats operating at night to display a green light on their starboard side and a red light on the port side to aid other traffic, the paper said.

The Atago navy destroyer is equipped with the Aegis missile tracking system. It collided with the fishing boat in calm waters off the coast of Chiba prefecture, southeast of Tokyo. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda criticized defense officials after they took more than two hours to notify him of the collision.

Very strange. As can be expected, this story is getting a lot of attention and comment in Japan.

The destroyer reportedly hit the brakes only one minute before the collision -- suggesting it only spotted the small boat very late.

"If they cannot act in an actual case like this, it is a problem no matter how high quality their equipment and training," said Hisao Iwashima, a military analyst and professor at Seigakuin University Graduate School.

But another military expert, Tadasu Kumagai, said it was a common misunderstanding that ships with the Aegis system were looking at threats in the immediate vicinity.

"It has an advanced radar for air defence, but its navigational radar is about the same quality as that of a fishing boat," he said.

Kumagai said however worries over suicide attacks from small boats going undetected were very real.

"A small boat is difficult to find on a navigational radar," he said. "That would be a problem."

This ship may one day be upgraded to the same capability on display with the Navy's ballistic missile defense capability in the Pacific. If that happens, one hopes they invest in a better navigational radar at the same time.

This is the most powerful warship in the world outside the United States in terms of technology and firepower, a first-rate battleship by our ship rating system, and it had trouble seeing a fishing boat at night? Odd.