The JDS Ishikari (DE-226) is the first destroyer escort

Destroyer escort

A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...

 with the gas turbine

Gas turbine

A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....

 engine and surface-to-surface missile

Surface-to-surface missile

A surface-to-surface missile is a guided projectile launched from a hand-held, vehicle mounted, trailer mounted or fixed installation or from a ship. They are often powered by a rocket motor or sometimes fired by an explosive charge, since the launching platform is typically stationary or moving...

 of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. She is the successor of the earlier on the table, but there are many differences in their concepts.

At first, this ship was planned to belong to the new ship classification, PCE (Patrol Coastal ships, Escort) to replace small submarine chaser

Submarine chaser

A submarine chaser is a small and fast naval vessel specially intended for anti-submarine warfare. Although similar vessels were designed and used by many nations, this designation was most famously used by ships built by the United States of America...

s and old destroyer escorts with limited ASW capability against new nuclear-powered submarines. But finally, it was decided to change her classification to the ordinary destroyer escort. This class is quite epoch-making for the destroyer escorts of the JMSDF as follows:
The CODOG propulsion system.

This is the first ship with the gas turbine engine in the JMSDF. The Rolls-Royce Olympus

Rolls-Royce Olympus

The Rolls-Royce Olympus was one of the world's first two-spool axial-flow turbojet aircraft engines, originally developed and produced by Bristol Aero Engines. First running in 1950, its initial use was as the powerplant of the Avro Vulcan V Bomber...

 TM-3B manufactured by the Kawasaki Heavy Industries

Kawasaki Heavy Industries

is an international corporation based in Japan. It has headquarters in both Chūō-ku, Kobe and Minato, Tokyo.The company is named after its founder Shōzō Kawasaki and has no connection with the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa....

 under license was used for boosting. The cruising engine is the Kawaksaki 6DRV 35/44 diesel engine developed by the Technical Research and Development Institute (TRDI).

Centre-superstructure style.

Whereas the JMSDF incline to adopt the flush decker style, in this ship, the superstructure is at the center of the ship to save the space of the ship. This was very controversial decision, and because of this decision, there has been the criticism about the ocean going capability of this ship.

Simplified but sufficient C4ISR system.

This ship was not equipped with air-search radar whereas her predecessors almost had. Alternatively she had the OPS-28 surface search and target acquisition radar which can deal with low-altitude aircraft and missiles. And also the FCS-2 gun fire-control system has the air-searching capability. As the tactical data processing system, she has the OYQ-5 being capable of receiving data automatically from other ships via Link-14 (STANAG 5514; the data link with the Radioteletype

Radioteletype

Radioteletype is a telecommunications system consisting originally of two or more electromechanical teleprinters in different locations, later superseded by personal computers running software to emulate teleprinters, connected by radio rather than a wired link.The term radioteletype is used to...

).

Brand-new weapon systems.

This ship was equipped with eight Boeing Harpoon Surface-to-surface missile

Surface-to-surface missile

A surface-to-surface missile is a guided projectile launched from a hand-held, vehicle mounted, trailer mounted or fixed installation or from a ship. They are often powered by a rocket motor or sometimes fired by an explosive charge, since the launching platform is typically stationary or moving...

 as the key weapon system whereas traditional Japanese frigates weighed heavily on the Anti-submarine warfare

Anti-submarine warfare

Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....

. According to this mission concept, its predecessor's Mark 16 GMLS for the ASROC

ASROC

ASROC is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed on over 200 USN surface ships, specifically cruisers, destroyers, and frigates...

 system was removed. And a modern Otobreda 76 mm

Otobreda 76 mm

The Otobreda 76 mm gun is a naval artillery piece built by the Italian defence conglomerate Otobreda. It is based on the Oto Melara 76mm/L62 Allargato, which was bigger and heavier...

 gun replaced its predecessor's older 3-inch gun and automation greatly reduced the number of crew needed.

This ship was built at the Mitsui Shipbuilding & Engineering Tamano office at Tamano, Okayama

Tamano, Okayama

is a city located in the southern Okayama, Japan.As of May 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 64,980, with a household number of 27,933 and the density of 627.16 persons per km². The total area is 103.61 km²....

. She was commissioned in 28 March 1981, and was deployed at the Ominato District Force (home-ported at Mutsu, Aomori

Mutsu, Aomori

is a city located in northeastern Aomori in the Tōhoku region of Japan. As of 2009, the city had an estimated population of 61,205 and a density of 70.09 persons per km²...

). The Ominato District is the northernmost district of the JMSDF and forefront against the Russian Pacific Fleet

Pacific Fleet (Russia)

The Pacific Fleet is the part of the Russian Navy that is stationed in the Pacific Ocean, which formerly secured the Far Eastern borders of the Soviet Union. The fleet headquarters is located at Vladivostok and a number of fleet bases are located in the Vladivostok area...

. But it was decided that the Ishikari was too small to continue production, so it was succeeded by the two years later.