Background
After the end of World War I, the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff issued requirements for a destroyer with a maximum speed of 39 knots, range of 4000 nautical miles at 14 knots, and armed with large numbers of the recently developed Type 8 torpedoes. These destroyers were intended to operate with the new series of fast and powerful new cruisers also under consideration as part of a program intended to give the Imperial Japanese Navy a qualitative edge with the world's most modern ships.
The resultant Fubuki-class was ordered under the 1923 fiscal year budget, with ships completed between 1926 and 1931. Their performance was a great improvement over previous destroyer designs, so much so that they were designated Special Type destroyers (特型, Tokugata?). The large size, powerful engines, high speed, large radius of action, and unprecedented armament gave these destroyers the firepower similar to many light cruisers in other navies.
The Fubuki class vessels were originally intended to only have hull numbers due to the projected large number of warships the Japanese Navy expected to build through the Eight-eight fleet plan. This proved to be extremely unpopular with the crews and was a constant source of confusion in communications with the earlier Kamikaze and Mutsuki-classes, and naval policy was changed in August 1928. Hence, the Fubuki-class vessels were assigned names as they were launched.
The closest equivalent in the United States Navy was the Porter-class, of which only eight vessels were constructed in the 1930s to function as destroyer squadron leaders.
Read more about this topic: Fubuki Class Destroyer
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