Taihei Tengoku, Mogami-class destroyer leader
- Length: 131.7m w/l
- Draft: 4.88m
- Beam: 11m
- Displacement: 3,100t standard / 4,050t full
- Speed: 34kts maximum
- Propulsion: 6x marine diesels, 2 shafts, 57,000hp
Armament:
- -4x twin 10cm Type 5700 DP guns
- -2x 34cm Type 5703 anti-submarine mortars
- -lots of 25mm Hotchkiss
- -depth charges and K-guns
Electronics:
- -2x tachymetric HA directors (RN Mk 37 with ~magic~)
- -1x air search radar
- -1x surface search radar
- -1x hydrophone
The Mogami-class destroyer leader marked a the Taihei Combined Fleet's departure from decisive battle towards sea control. Laid down in 1948 and commissioned in January of 1950, the Mogami-class incorporated tachymetric gun direction (with imported Questarian directors), an integrated ASW suite, and a centralized combat information center, all firsts for Taihei shipbuilding. Much larger than her torpedo-centric destroyer charges, the twelve ships of the class led the smaller destroyers (now re-roled as "destroyer escorts") in security patrols around the Pearl Sea. Her diesel powerplant afforded her greater range compared to other ships her size, and could escort the dwindling stable of Taihei capital ships in the greater Maredoratic as the cruisers aged out of service.
On one hand, the Mogami was a retrenchment: Taihei Tengoku's autarkic "National System" of economic cartelization and material planning could not keep up with the vastly larger Alisnan economies, and the new "destroyer leaders" were much smaller than the light cruisers they replaced. On the other it was a step forward: the Fleet quit the "statistics race" of cramming the largest engine with the most guns in the smallest, best-protected hull for a combatant that prioritized the often underappreciated command and control aspects of warfare. With the advent of the atomic bomb, the jet aircraft, and the diesel-electric submarine, the age of "decisive battle" as any admiral would know it was over. The Mogami was the Taihei attempt to adapt to this reality with their stagnating economy and lagging technology.
The chief armament of the Mogami-class is the eight 10cm dual-purpose, quick-firing guns, first mounted on the Shinonome-class destroyers of 1941. They are mated to two imported Questarian HA tachymetric directors. Each director can lay all four turrets on its targeting information, but typically the forward director controls the forward turret while the aft director controls the aft three. For self-defense a plethora of 25mm anti-aircraft cannons are mounted, although they are all under local control. An air search radar (adapted from a battleship set) can detect aircraft out to 130km away at high altitude. Anti-air gunnery is coordinated inside a CIC located in the aft of the ship. The forward armament consists of two 13.5" muzzle-loading anti-submarine mortars mounted abreast. Each mortar has a hoist and loading gate immediately forward of its mounting. Coupled with the hydrophone these made the destroyer leaders potent ASW combatants.
The Mogami-class is considered a well-executed, although technologically backward, design. The ships proved reliable in service, but her principal armament (the AA guns) were almost immediately outstripped by rapid developments in jet aviation. Mogami, Nekka, and Dairyo were refitted into guided-missile destroyers with imported Prekovi surface-to-air missiles between 1959 and 1963, and the rebuilt ships provided the basis of the Kano-class of missile-armed destroyer leaders of the 1960s. All ships of the class were retired by 1975, and none survive today.
