JDS Amatsukaze

JDS Amatsukaze (DDG-163) was a guided missile destroyer (DDG) of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), and the only ship of her class. She was the first Japanese surface combatant equipped with surface-to-air missiles. She was launched on 5 October 1963 and decommissioned in 1995.

Amatsukaze was planned as the DDG variant of the preceding Akizuki-class anti-aircraft destroyers, mounting the American Tartar Guided Missile Fire Control System weapon system. However, the Tartar system turned out to be larger than expected, so Amatsukaze's design was altered completely, with an enlarged hull and with a shelter-deck design based on that of the and uprated steam turbines.

Tartar missiles
Amatsukaze was one of the earliest foreign ships equipped with the American Tartar system. (The other is the French Kersaint-class DDG). Because of the financial burden of this expensive weapon system, the other equipment aboard Amatsukaze was almost the same as that of the at first, but the JMSDF applied a spiral model to Amatsukaze, allowing continual updating of her equipment as described in the following table.

The Tartar weapon system made a strong positive impression on the JMSDF, but it was too expensive for the JMSDF to able to afford another Tartar-equipped DDG at once. As a result, the JMSDF had to wait 10 years to build another DDG, the first destroyer.