Nakai Systems' Type 50 cruise missile launcher and VLS, which steamrolled all competition to win a government contract for missile launchers last August, was first used in combat today. At approximately 10:00 AM, Idōwa time, the
Kawagiri-class guided missile destroyer HNF
Yamazakura launched two JM12 Shio cruise missiles while being accompanied by its sister ships HNF
Namikaze and HNF
Asashimo. The
Kawagiri had been fitted with the first production Type 50 in November last year. The design of the VLS, whose cells are made to rotate to a fixed launch position, allowed the missiles to fire less than a few seconds apart from each other, with the whole system taking up the space of a single normal VLS cell.
The missiles targeted a Rowiet
Hyeokmyeong-class destroyer which was patrolling alone more than 400 kilometers north, near the Rowiet coast. The first missile destroyed the ship, and the second as a result lost its lock. The short space between the impact of the first and second did, however, continue on its trajectory and thus likely obliterated what was left of the destroyer.
For security reasons, the news was not released by the Imperial Navy, but Nakai Systems CEO Nakai Tanemoto was at liberty to make the announcement of the combat test's success in a speech on behalf of Nakai Systems in Idōwa at 4:00 PM today. The announcement was greeted with cheers of 'Banzai' from the audience, to the point that the rest of the speech had to be called off due to the general patriotic rambunctiousness.