| abstract | - JDS Amatsukaze was a guided missile destroyer (DDG) of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the only ship of its class. This was the first Japanese surface combatant equipped with surface-to-air missiles. She was launched on October 5, 1963, and decommissioned in 1995. It was planned as the DDG variant of its predecessor Akizuki-class anti-aircraft destroyers at first, but unfortunately, the Tartar weapon system was more large-scaled than expected. So finally, the design became completely anew with enlarged hull with shelter deck design based on the one of Isuzu-class and uprated steam turbines. This ship is one of the earliest foreign ships equipped with the Tartar Guided Missile Fire Control System (the other is the French Kersaint-class DDG). Because of the financial burden of this expensive weapon system, the other equipment were almost the same as those of the Ayanami-class at first. But JMSDF applied a spiral model to this ship, so these equipment were continued to be constantly updated as the following table. The Tartar weapon system of this ship made a strong impression on the JMSDF, but it was too expensive to have another Tartar DDG at once. So the JMSDF had to wait 10 years to have another DDG, Tachikaze-class.
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