A naming and launching ceremony for the first of a new class of Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine was held at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Kobe Shipyard in Kobe on Wednesday.
This is the first time in 13 years that a new submarine class has been launched. The submarine was given the name "Taigei" (big whale). Future submarines will be built in the Taigei-class and will all have the word "gei" (whale) in their names. According to the MSDF, it is customary to name submarines after natural ocean phenomena, underwater animals and other creatures that are considered to be lucky.
Currently, there are nine Oyashio-class submarines, including Uzushio and Kuroshio, with "shio" (current) in each name. Also, there are 11 Soryu-class submarines, such as Unryu and Hakuryu, with "ryu" (dragon) in each name.
The Taigei is 84 meters long and 9.1 meters wide. It has a draft of 10.4 meters, or 0.1 meters more than that of the Soryu-class. The displacement is about 3,000 tons, an increase of about 50 tons.
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