The minister did state
However, a forward looking ministerial statement isn't the same as test firing before IOC. But clearly there is an intention. The Japanese are familiar with these munitions, their aegis ships I believe run a similar interface overlay as our hobart refits will do, with a local combat system type overlay front end. I wonder if their Mogami combat system is based off that same overlay interface with libraries, kinda how 9LV does with aegis.
I suspect there is more going on in the combat system space than is in public domain. Possibly they are confident they can integrate the Japanese radar with 9LV and put 9LV on the Mogamis existing computer network. Most are essentially high powered x86 servers in commercial racks these days the custom silicon stuff went out in the late 90s. Or 9LV interfaces over Mogami systems. At the core, things tend to be API's and software calls to those API's, so as long as Japan and Australia trust each other, they could certainly do that, and integration doesn't have to be ultra hard. Pure speculation, but still.
I suspect the first 3 ships will basically operate as is for a short period of time, perhaps a year or two, and then they will push newer systems. There are multiple parallel developments happening, so there is no reason for a hard and fast announcement at this stage, keep both open ended and don't stack up the risks.
Mogami armed with ESSM II, NSM, SM-6, modern Tomahawk, NSM and RIM116, torpedo's (mk54?
Mu90s?) and a 127mm will be a formidable ship with a Mh60R as well and perhaps drone systems, excellent sensors, radar, sonar, etc. That is a
*PRETTY* capable low end combatant.
