Navy colonel Miho Otani became the first female officer to command one of six Japanese Aegis shield warships.

"Becoming the first female captain on a destroyer carrying the Aegis shield is a great honor. I want to make this a trend in the future as the number of women enlisted is increasing," Colonel Miho Otani said. during the inauguration ceremony at Maizuru base today.

Colonel Otani was given command of the destroyer JS Myoko and 300 crew members. "Hopefully everyone will carry out the mission without hesitation," the 48-year-old captain told the officers.

Otani was among the first female officers to graduate from the Japan National Defense Academy in 1996 and became the first woman to command a training ship of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in 2013. She became the female flagship. The country's first destroyer took command of the 2016 JS Yamagiri.

JS Myoko is one of four Kongo-class destroyers, developed from the Arleigh Burke class of the US Navy. The ship is 161 m long, 21 m wide and has a full displacement of 9,500 tons.

JS Myoko's strength lies in the Aegis Combat System, capable of capturing and intercepting a variety of aerial threats. Four Kongo-class destroyers and two Atago-class form a ballistic missile defense shield for Japan, as two ships can protect most of the country.

Kongo-class weapons mainly serve defensive purposes with 90 vertical Mark 41 launchers. Each ship can carry SM-2MR anti-aircraft missiles and SM-3 ballistic missile interceptors with a range of maximum shot of 2,500 km. Besides that is a 127 mm main gun, 8 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, 6 torpedo tubes and two close-range anti-aircraft artillery systems near Phalanx.