TOKYO, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) commissioned on Wednesday one of its largest helicopter-carrying destroyer with the same name as a notorious WWII warship.
The 19,500-ton Kaga, named after an ancient province in Japan, shares the name with an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy which took part in Japan's aggression wars against its neighbors before and during WWII and was scuttled at the Battle of Midway in 1942.
The 248-meter-long warship, the same size as the Izumo destroyer, is equipped with a large flight deck and can carry up to 14 helicopters. It can also carry the controversial Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
The MSDF now has four such "aircraft-carrier like" vessels destroyers, including Kaga, Izumo, as well as the 13,500-ton Hyuga and Ise.
The vessels will notably increase Japan's military striking capability, according to local reports.
Japan's pacifist Constitution has banned the nation from maintaining land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential.
However, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the country has been seeking to improve its military capacity, with defense budget rising constantly and hitting an unprecedented 5.13 trillion yen (around 44 billion U.S. dollars) for the fiscal year starting April 2017.
