USS Shoup, a Flight IIA version of the Arleigh-Burke class destroyer arrived in Japan

 

U.S. Navy adds submarine-hunting destroyer to Japan fleet

 

The U.S. Navy's base in Yokosuka, the largest overseas American naval installation in the world, previously served as a major shipyard and headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
 
Dry docks that date back to the 1870s are still used by the U.S. Navy. Emperor Meiji visited the shipyard on multiple occasions, and on one of the visits, he placed a commemorative gold coin behind one of the stones -- which has not been found to this day.
 
A cave that served as the Imperial Navy's operations center, with a huge floor-to-ceiling map on which sailors would climb a ladder to attach magnetic ships, is today the headquarters of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15 that protects the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.
 
This week, DESRON 15 received a new addition, the USS Shoup. In line with a policy to forward-deploy newer and more advanced ships near the Taiwan Strait, the Shoup is a Flight IIA version of the Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, equipped with two helicopter hangars that house the Sikorsky MH-60 Seahawk, the Navy's primary anti-submarine warfare asset. Countering China's submarine capability is the focus.