JMSDF Isuzu-class destroyer escort(War Thunder update 1.95 “Northern Wind”)

n War Thunder, the frigate Isuzu will appear in rank II of the Japanese naval forces tree with the arrival of the next major update coming to the game. Unlike its direct successor - Chikugo, a familiar vessel to some sailors - Isuzu is an older design, but one that offers enhanced firepower and survivability - traits that will most certainly be welcomed by many captains!
On its firepower - Isuzu features a similar primary armament arsenal as the Chikugo, although doubled in quantity. As a result, Isuzu offers its aspiring Captains access to four 3’’ (76mm) rapid-fire cannons, spread across two twin turrets - one on either end of the ship’s hull. Furthermore, captains will also have a single, centre-mounted quad barrel 324mm torpedo launcher at their disposal
However, unlike Chikugo, Isuzu doesn’t offer any sort of secondary weapon system to back up the main guns, disregarding the torpedo armament, of course. This means that future captains of this ship will need to be extremely cautious of the sort of engagements they take part in and maintain a high degree of situational awareness, given that they will be required to keep an eye out and manually engage targets, both on the surface and in the air. Fortunately however, the primary guns do offer a wide selection of ammunition choices, giving you the necessary flexibility in battle.

Another important improvement the Isuzu offers over its more modern counterpart concerns survivability. Thanks to its slightly larger size allowing for the accommodation of 18 more sailors on board compared to the Chikugo, Isuzu’s total crew count is therefore brought up to 183, inherently making it more capable of absorbing battle damage and offering overall greater resilience as a result.
The Isuzu class destroyer escort was a destroyer escort (or frigate) class built for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) in the early 1960s. The latter batch (Kitakami and Ōi) were quite different from the earlier two vessels in their propulsion and weaponry, so sometimes they were classified as the "Kitakami-class".

This class was the first JMSDF surface combatant adopted shelter-deck design. Propulsion systems varied in each vessels because the JMSDF tried to find the best way in the propulsion systems of future DEs. The design concept of this class and the CODAD propulsion system of the Kitakami-class became prototype of them of the latter DEs and DDKs such as Chikugo-class and Yamagumo-class.

The gun system was a scale-down version of the Ayanami-class, four 3"/50 caliber Mark 22 guns with two Mark 33 dual mounts controlled by a Mark 63 GFCS.[3] Main air-search radar was a OPS-2, Japanese variant of the American AN/SPS-12.

In the earlier batch, the main Anti-submarine armament was a Mk.108 Weapon Alpha. The JMSDF desired this American brand-new ASW rocket launcher earnestly, but then, it became clear that it was not as good as it was supposed to be. So in the latter batch, it was changed with a M/50, Swedish 375mm quadruple ASW rocket launcher. And later, Weapon Alpha of the earlier batch was also replaced by a Type 71, Japanese version of the M/50.