Kitikami and Oi

[spence]

The issue of "operational" rather than just "installed" is important. The American air search radars were installed and an operational doctrine was in use which attempted to analyze radar data in a timely fashion and pass the information and analysis to the commander. The doctrine was not well developed but it was in place.

I would submit that the Japanese had no such doctrine until much later in the war and that it hardly advanced out of its infancy before there was no Navy to use it. I don't have the data handy right now but think that even a truly hardcore IJN Fanboy would have to admit they aren't too impressed by the AA armament of the HIJMS Kitakami/Oi in Dec 1941. If these ships were envisioned to contribute to air defense it only makes sense to arm them with air defense weapons systems and lots of them. Now take a look at the IJN's air defense destroyer (Akitsukis or something like that): they've got 8 of the IJN's best heavy flak gun but huh? what's missing??
AN AIR SEARCH RADAR. Clearly evidence that the IJN didn't even envision a role for radar in 1941.
The Player may be the Supreme Commander but he starts with the situation as of 12/07/41. Although the player is a farsighted and indeed brilliant commander he has not been allowed rewrite the history of the IJN for the past few years to include his fight with the bureaucrats in the IJN BBUSHIPS to spring for all the expense of selecting a vendor, contracting for mass production of the systems, establishing training facilities and programs to make this a part of IJN warfighting. Nope - what he's got is a couple of electronic gizmos that usually light up and make a kind of hmmmmmmmmm noise on the bridge or in the chartroom of HIJMS Kitakami/Oi and some poor Ensigns' signatures who promised not to break it. [:D]