The Maritime Self-Defense Force and the Japan Coast Guard conducted a joint antipiracy exercise Friday off Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture.

The exercise precedes the deployment expected early next month of two MSDF destroyers — the 4,650-ton Sazanami and the 4,550-ton Samidare — to the Gulf of Aden to protect Japan-related ships from pirates off Somalia.

The exercise was based on a scenario in which two destroyers — the same models as the Sazanami and Samidare — and an MSDF helicopter repel a boatload of pirates, played by a coast guard vessel, that are chasing a Japanese-registered commercial ship, also played by a coast guard vessel.