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A quarter century ago this month in October 1996, ShinMaywa Industries, a Hyogo Prefecture-based aircraft maker, was named the choice contractor to develop the US-1A Kai, by and by renamed the US-2 amphibian aircraft .
On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the begin of its development, with odd capabilities and Japan ’ s alone engineering, the US-2 offers strength and agility not only to Japan and its self-defense forces, but well beyond the region.
It may not be a combatant fountain with top speeds and visualize maneuvers, but this life-saving workhorse deserves a special note of thanks on its anniversary.
The first US-2 sea plane for JMSDF and the ShinMaywa’s sub project manager Kenichiro Mizoguchi in February 2009.
An Improved Seaplane
The US-1A Kai ( with Kai meaning “ improved ” ) was intended to be a greatly modify translation of the US-1A seaplane, built by the same party and introduced in the early 1970s as an aircraft adequate to of both anti-submarine war ( ASW ) and search and rescue ( SAR ) .
By the early 1990s, the US-1A fleet was showing its age and the Japan Maritime self-defense Forces ( MSDF ) sought funding for a substitute. There was not adequate money to design and make an wholly new aircraft, however, so ShinMaywa agreed to try an upgrade and modernize adaptation of its amphibian plane .
Most readers have seen a word picture of a seaplane, and identical likely a photograph of the earlier US-1A or current US-2 .
early seaplanes and floatplanes, such as those used earlier and during World War II, were made by ShinMaywa ’ s early predecessor, Kawanishi Aircraft Company. There were dozens of models and many built, including the Kawanishi H8K “ flying boat, ” which the Allies named “ Emily. ”
These aircraft were ingeniously used during the war. In fact, japanese forces were so well at using them and the technicians so good with designing them that the Allies banned Japan from building aircraft after the war .
With the conclusion of the occupation, in 1952, the prohibition was lifted and Kawanishi ’ s successor, ShinMeiwa ( established in 1949 and renamed ShinMaywa in 1992 ), resumed its aircraft business the postdate year .
Although there were other amphibian aircraft companies around the world, ShinMaywa once again became the worldly concern ’ sulfur best, due to its singular focus on resolving the problems that plagued seaplanes of all companies .
namely, the plane had to have good seaworthiness and be able to take off and kingdom in boisterous seas. It besides needed a high-lift device, enabling short circuit takeoff and landing ( STOL ). brawny engines were required for the latter, and a “ spray suppressor ” was invented for dealing with the roughly seas .
ShinMaywa ’ s US-2, like its harbinger US-1A, is able to land in water with a wave height of 3 meters, the only one in the global to be able to do so .
Its four Rolls-Royce AE 2100J propjet engines allow it not only to have a maximum take-off weight many tons more than its closest rival, but besides to fly double the distance of its other competitors, and at higher altitudes. farther, it requires lone a divide of the distance necessary to take off compared to other aircraft .
It is, plainly put, fast, strong, and agile.
The US-2 by ShinMaywa
Getting to Today’s US-2
It took a long time to get to that point, but ShinMaywa kept at it, producing the US-1A and then the US-2 with the help of many domestic and extraneous companies. indeed, some 1,500 japanese manufacturers alone, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., NIPPI Corporation, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., were involved in the development .
The US-2 had to include certain modifications, according to the contract : a supercharge hull, better on-board affected role transmit facilities, improved search and rescue capabilities at sea, to name just a few .
After several years, a rollout ceremony for Prototype No. 1 was held in April 2003 at ShinMaywa ’ mho Konan production factory in Kobe ( which miraculously survived the bombard during World War II ), and the inaugural quiz flight was conducted in December that year. Prototypes 1 and 2 were delivered to the then-Japan Defense Agency ( since 2007, the Ministry of Defense ) in March and December 2004 respectively .
After the JDA, along with the Maritime Self-Defense Force ( MSDF ), conducted their own engineering and servicing tests, the US-1A Kai was officially renamed the US-2 STOL Search and Rescue Amphibian, and in March 2007, the beginning of an expected fourteen in total aircraft were delivered.
presently, there are seven in use by the MSDF to meet a diverseness of requirements. They are operated by the 31st Fleet Air Wing at Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture and Atsugi Air Station in Kanagawa Prefecture. The last US-1A was withdrawn after performing its concluding flight in December 2017 following the presentation of the US-2.
Mr. Kanji Ishimaru, vice-president of ShinMaywa is talking at the event on US-2 sea plane in April 2019.
Search and Rescue, Fire-fighting, and More
The chief mission of the US-2 is search and rescue, such as rule and bring home downed military and civilian aircraft and their crews, but it has many other capabilities, excessively .
first, the seaplanes are sent out to find passengers, ships and boats in distress, people adrift at ocean ( such as shipwrecks, stranded swimmers, surfers, boaters, tsunami victims, etc. ) .
At the lapp meter, they carry out reconnaissance on unidentified or potentially hostile ships and anti-submarine war .
It is the plane ’ s versatility, and the fact it can besides land on runways vitamin a well as on water, that allows it to perform missions such as the transportation system of people and supplies. indeed, its missions will likely grow to include non-combatant evacuations ( NEOs ), conducting mid-air refueling operations, and serving as a flying command post providing communication or data links .
ShinMaywa, whose name you see on special purpose trucks and passenger board bridges at airports as you board your flat, besides produces a civilian fire-fighting translation of the aircraft. This model, which has attracted attention around the populace from potential buyers, replaces one of the fuel tanks with a 15-ton water system tank car .
As the plane skims the water ( an ocean, lake, dam, or reservoir ), in a count of seconds the water tank is filled. It ’ s durable adequate for salt water, foam, and fire retardant, not to mention fresh body of water. The volume is approximately doubly that of the maximum volume scooped up in the buckets flown by the Ground Self-Defense Force ’ s CH-47 heavy lift helicopter, which was employed at Fukushima in March 2011. It is besides about twenty-five times that of the buckets used by smaller displace department helicopters .
Having the water system tank installed in place of a fuel tank inevitably reduces the maximum crop of the aircraft by half, or 2,300 kilometer. But in most cases such long-distance firefighting would not be necessity once on the view .
importantly, it ’ second already hanker compass allows Japan to dispatch the aircraft to countries in need fighting forest fires or other disasters. Had a request been made, it probable would have helped in the australian wildfires of 2020, not only demonstrating its range and capabilities but besides making an significant international contribution .
In accession to the civilian firefighting adaptation, the earlier version Prototypes 1 and 2 can be refitted to conduct firefighting adenine well.
US-2 seaplane by ShinMaywa
Saving Lives, at Home and Abroad
Its chief mission, however, has been search and rescue. The US-2, along with its harbinger, has conducted thousands of at-sea rescues, with thousands of people saved. many of those include foreigners, including U.S. military personnel in Japan whose aircraft went devour while training or on other missions .
One such person was a U.S. Air Force captain whose F-16 went down 700 miles off the japanese coast in cold January weather. The waves were 3 meters high and the fender ’ s liveliness raft was swamped by the water. Four hours late, as he lay scantily conscious with hypothermia, the devour fly saw the MSDF ’ s plane circling his destine raft. He knew then he was saved. Two swimmers from the then-twelve-person crew got to him in time and pulled him to safety onboard. A few hours after his rescue, he was in a warm hospital sleep together at Yokota Air Base .
The US-2, which seats 20 passengers, not including gang, or 12 stretchers, greatly extended the crop of operations from 1,500 ( of the US-1A ) to 1,900 km, allowing for life-saving searches to be done over a across-the-board sphere for a longer time .
The US-2 can besides help in other areas as well .
The Indo-Pacific region is huge, with wide distances between land. It besides has many islands. The US-2 is ideal for servicing these islands and coastal areas in a commercial or contractual way .
U.S. military distributed operations and regional training among the Quad countries and others would greatly benefit by employing the US-2, particularly where no airports exist .
Planners at Camp Schwab, the otherwise ailing thought-out locate of the move of some of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma ’ s functions, should revise their plans to be able to handle the aircraft there with a seaplane ramp and airdock ( mho ).
The advantages of integrating the ShinMaywa hydroplane US-2 into exercises and operational war plans are clear. At the same fourth dimension, the life-saving benefits it would bring to island states beyond Japan ’ s shores besides beg for action, and any intra-Japanese government bureaucratic electric resistance to selling or using it abroad should be overcome immediately.
author : Robert D. Eldridge, PhD .
Eldridge is an generator and the erstwhile political adviser to the U.S. Marine Corps in Japan .
