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Wait until you see it transform into a gigantic PLAN-smashing robot that launches stealthy super cruising Zero MkII fighters from it's torso.
"Acoustic measurement ship" is the Japanese term for this type of ship, but their equivalents in the US are called ocean surveillance ships.The role of the Hibiki-class is to detect, track, and monitor submarines in Japanese or near-Japanese waters, as well as to gather acoustic data at sea (particularly that of submarines) for analysis. They were designed in the late '80s as a response to the increasing stealthiness of Soviet sub designs, ironically becoming a major concern as the Japanese firm Toshiba had sold technology and machinery that allowed them to build quieter screws, which came to light in the Toshiba-Kongsberg Scandal.However, they are not in themselves anti-submarine warfare platforms, as they are completely unarmed. They act only as the JMSDF's ears, and are not combatants.They are very similar in design and role to a number of other ships - the American Victorious-class and the USNS Impeccable, and the Chinese Type 639. The one major difference between these and the Japanese ships is the huge helidecks present on the Hibiki-class, although they have no hangar.The Hibiki- and Victorious-class ships were first commissioned in the same year, 1991, and may be of related design, although I have seen no clear word of how much one design influenced the other. They do however both use the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) as their main tool.These are all small-waterplane-area twin hull (SWATH) designs, which is like a catamaran, but where the twin hulls are very large and submarine-shaped beneath the waterline. This places the majority of the ship's displacement completely under the wave action, increasing stability at the cost of speed. I can find no pictures of the Hibiki-class in dry dock, but this pic of a Victorious-class in dry dock shows off the hull design, which is probably very similar.Although neat, the sonars on ocean surveillance ships similar to this have been implicated as a cause for mass beachings of whales. Because of this, the US Navy has supposedly placed limits on where, when and how they may be used. I don't know if the JMSDF has similar regulations.The Hibiki-class are named after "nadas". A "nada" in Japanese is an area of sea that has particularly rough waters and strong currents. I don't think there's an equivalent English word. AOS-5201 Hibiki: "Hibiki" is a word that means echo, reverberation, or more generally as a verb that refers to the travelling of sound. The Hibiki Nada is the stretch of sea northwest from the Kanmon Straits between Honshū and Kyūshū. AOS-5202 Harima: The Harima Nada is in the middle of the Seto Inland Sea, between Honshū and Shikoku. Harima is the name of an old province that was on the Honshū coast north of the Nada.Another SWATH design operated by Japan is the Kaiyō ("Ocean"), an oceanographic research vessel used by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), essentially Japanese NOAA. Because it is made by the same manufacturer at about the same time, it may be a related design, even though it's a civilian ship.
A U.S. Navy Douglas A4D-2N Skyhawk launches from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) on 1 October 1962. Note the North American A3J-1 Vigilante bombers of Heavy Attack Squadron VAH-7 Peacemakers of the Fleet on deck.
