Design
The hull of the Izumo-class cruiser was a typical flush deck with high freeboard to improve seaworthiness. As with Asama, the Izumo-class used a steel housing divided into 166 waterproof compartments, a low forecastle, and two masts.The design still came with a ram attached to the bow. The main armament was 20.3 cm/45 Type 41 naval guns mounted in gun turrets in the bow and stern. These guns could rotate 150 degrees to either side and could elevate to 30 degrees, firing at a rate of two rounds per minute. Secondary armament consisted of fourteen Elswick QF 6 inch /40 naval gun quick-firing guns, with a range of 9,140 meters and a firing rate of five to seven shots per minute. The Izumo-class was also equipped with twelve QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval guns, seven QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss guns and five 457 mm torpedo tubes. Armor plating was the newly developed Krupp armor instead of the Harvey armor used by preceding classes.
Improvements in steam engine design allowed her triple expansion reciprocating engine to be built with 24 Belleville boilers instead of the 12 locomotive-style boilers in Asama. This resulted in a weight savings of over 300 tons. The class had a rated speed of 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h) and a range of 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) based on bunkerage of 1409 tons of coal.
In 1934, Izumo was equipped with a Nakajima E4N reconnaissance floatplane, which was launched by lowering from a crane on her aft deck to the ocean.
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