Izumo-class cruiser

A postcard of Izumo at speed, circa 1905–15
Class overview
Name:	Izumo class
Builders:	Armstrong Whitworth, United Kingdom
Operators:	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by:	Asama class
Succeeded by:	Yakumo
Built:	1898–1901
In commission:	1900–1945
Completed:	2
Lost:	2
General characteristics
Type:	Armored cruiser
Displacement:	9,423–9,503 t (9,274–9,353 long tons)
Length:	132.28 m (434 ft 0 in) (o/a)
Beam:	20.94 m (68 ft 8 in)
Draft:	7.21–7.26 m (23 ft 8 in–23 ft 10 in)
Installed power:	14,500 ihp (10,800 kW) 24 Belleville boilers
Propulsion:	2 Shafts 2 Vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	20.75 knots (38.43 km/h; 23.88 mph)
Range:	7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	672
Armament:	2 × twin 20.3 cm/45 Type 41 naval guns 14 × single QF 6-inch guns 12 × single QF 12-pounder 12-cwt guns 8 × single QF 2.5-pounder Yamauchi guns 4 × single 457 mm (18.0 in) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Waterline belt: 89–178 mm (3.5–7.0 in) Deck: 63 mm (2.5 in) Gun Turret: 160 mm (6.3 in) Barbette: 152 mm (6.0 in) Casemate: 51–152 mm (2.0–6.0 in) Conning tower: 356 mm (14.0 in) Bulkhead: 127 mm (5.0 in)

The Izumo-class cruisers (出雲型装甲巡洋艦, Izumo-gata sōkōjun'yōkan^?) were a pair of armored cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, the vessels were built in Britain. They were part of the "Six-Six Fleet" expansion program that began after the defeat of China during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95. The sister ships participated in three of the four main naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05—the Battle of Port Arthur, the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima—but played a much more minor role in World War I.

Iwate was first used as a training ship in 1916 and remained in that role for most of the rest of her career. Her sister, Izumo, was mostly used for training during the 1920s, but became flagship of the IJN forces in China in 1932. She was involved in the Shanghai Incident that year and in the Second Sino-Japanese War that began five years later. The ship was used in the early stages of the Philippines Campaign during the Pacific War until she struck a mine at the end of 1941. Izumo joined her sister as a training ship in home waters in 1943. Both ships were sunk in a series of American air attacks on the naval base at Kure in July 1945. Their wrecks were refloated after the war and scrapped.