Minekaze-class destroyer
Minekaze at Yokosuka on 30 August 1932
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| Class overview | |
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| Name: | Minekaze class |
| Builders: | |
| Operators: | |
| Preceded by: | Momi class |
| Succeeded by: | Wakatake class |
| Subclasses: | Nokaze class |
| In commission: | 1919–1946 |
| Completed: | 15 |
| Lost: | 11 |
| Retired: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Destroyer |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: |
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| Beam: | 9 m (30 ft) |
| Draught: | 2.9 m (9.5 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2-shaft Mitsubishi-Parsons geared steam turbine, 4 heavy oil-fired boilers 38,500 ihp (28,700 kW) |
| Speed: | 39 knots (72 km/h) |
| Range: |
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| Complement: | 148 |
| Armament: |
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The Minekaze class (峯風型駆逐艦 Minekazegata kuchikukan?) was a class of fifteen 1st-class destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Obsolete by the beginning of the Pacific War, the Minekaze-class ships were relegated to mostly secondary roles, serving throughout the war as patrol vessels, high speed transports, target control vessels, and as kaiten (suicide torpedo) carriers. Most ultimately were lost to U.S. and British submarines.
Construction of the large-sized Minekaze-class destroyers was authorized as part of the Imperial Japanese Navy's 8-4 Fleet Program from fiscal 1917–1920, as an accompaniment to the medium-sized Momi class with which they shared many common design characteristics.
Equipped with powerful engines, these vessels were capable of high speeds and were intended as escorts for the projected Amagi-class battlecruisers, which were ultimately never built.
Two vessels were authorized in fiscal 1917, and an addition five in fiscal 1918. Although none had been completed by the end of World War I, the Japanese Navy decided to continue the project as many older destroyers were in need of replacement. An additional five vessels were ordered in fiscal 1919, and a final three in fiscal 1920. However, the final three vessels were built to a different design and have a different enough silhouette that they can be regarded as a separate sub-class.
The new destroyers were fast and powerful ships that were equal to any of their foreign contemporaries.
Coming between the foreign designed vessels of the earlier part of the century and the innovative Kagerō and Fubuki 'Special Type' destroyers of the 1930s, the Minekaze class was a significant transitional design for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Minekaze represented a complete break from previous practice of closely following British designs and methods.
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