Striking images show the F-35 jump-jet’s first trials on a newly converted Japanese aircraft carrier

An F-35B Lightning II aircraft departs the flight deck of the JS Kaga.

Japan’s destroyer-turned-aircraft carrier just completed sea trials off the coast of California on Friday, the country’s navy said.

The JS Kaga was refitted with a flight deck that allowed crews “to conduct fixed-wing aircraft operations,” the US Defense Department said in a statement last month.

The Kaga is the first aircraft carrier to be operated by the Japanese navy since World War II as the country overhauls its maritime forces amid tensions in the Indo-Pacific. Central to the light carrier’s power is the short take-off and landing version of the F-35 stealth fighter.

JS Kaga

The Japanese destroyer JS Kaga sails off the coast of Southern California.

The JS Kaga is an Izumo-class multi-functional destroyer initially designed to accommodate up to 28 military helicopters.

The vessel measures just over 800 feet and weighs 24,000 tons — far smaller than modern flattops like the Nimitz-class carriers, which measure more than 1,092 feet with a full-load displacement of over 100,000 long tons.

Named after a former province of Japan, the converted light aircraft carrier shares the same name as the aircraft carrier that launched the planes in the 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Destroyer-turned-flattop

Aircraft fly above the flight deck of the JS Kaga.

In 2018, then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that the ship would be refitted to accommodate and launch F-35B Lightning II aircraft.

Converting the ship to accommodate fighter jets goes against post-war Japan’s pacifist beliefs, so its navy designated the Kaga as a “multi-purpose destroyer” rather than an aircraft carrier. Nonetheless, the Kaga is not expected to be deployed like a traditional carrier.

“Given its history, it’s significant that Japan has come this far, and they have the capability now that looks like an aircraft carrier … once it’s reconfigured,” Jeffrey Hornung, a political scientist specializing in Japanese security and foreign policy, told Time in 2019.

He added: “But, then again, they’re not [aircraft carriers]. They don’t have any of the infrastructure for it to be deployed as such. They don’t have the strike capability. They don’t have any sort of intention to go further than what it is right now.”

First landing on the JS Kaga

An F-35B takes off from the flight deck of the Japanese destroyer JS Kaga.

The Japanese destroyer’s refitting process was completed in April this year. Last month, the Kaga began sea trials in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of California near San Diego.

On October 21, the US took a major step by landing an F-35B on the flight deck of the newly converted vessel.

“The trials will pave the way for increased interoperability with our allies,” the Defense Department’s F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office told Newsweek in a statement last month.

Lockheed’s F-35B Lightning II

A catapult officer aboard the JS Kaga signals to the pilot of an F-35B. 

American defense contractor Lockheed Martin manufactures the fifth-generation stealth fighter jets, which have been acquired by US allies around the globe and touted as one of the world’s most advanced fighters. The F-35B features a powerful lift fan, built by Rolls-Royce, that allows it to land and take-off like a helicopter.

Lockheed anticipates a per-share profit of $26.65 for 2024, raising its forecast range above the previous $26.10 to $26.60 range, Reuters reported in late October.

However, Lockheed’s F-35 program was plagued by payment headwinds brought on by the government contracting process, causing the company’s shares to slide 5% despite the higher forecast.

Flight tests

An F-35B lands on the illuminated flight deck of the JS Kaga during a night flight test.

During the three-week trials, Japanese, US, and UK defense forces flew at night and in other conditions “to collect the data necessary for ship-based operation of F-35B on IZUMO-class vessels,” according to a statement from Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force.

The US Marine Corps also deployed a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter to the Kaga to deliver a specialized cleaning and repair system intended to restore friction on the flight deck aboard the vessel.

Growing tension with China

A landing signal officer watches as an F-35B lands on the flight deck of the JS Kaga.

The sea trials were comprised of personnel from the US Navy and Marine Corps and the UK Royal Air Force and Navy, as well as contractors Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace, and Northrop Grumman.

On November 8, the Japanese navy wrote in a post on X that the sea trials “reaffirmed” the “strong ties between Japan and the US.”

“We remain committed to working together for a #FreeAndOpenIndoPacific and deepening ties with allied navies,” the navy added.

Japan and the US have been engaging in joint military operations in response to growing hostility from China as it continues its military buildup and increasing aggression in the East and South China Seas.

In September, Japan accused China of sailing into its territorial waters just days after a Chinese spy plane violated Japanese airspace, to which China said the ship’s passage was legal and that the two incidents weren’t linked.