Japan’s Coast Guard Agency is considering building a large patrol ship capable of carrying multiple rubber boats in order to protect the waters around the Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan. The proposed large patrol ship would have a total length of 200 meters and a total tonnage of 30,000 tons. The target is for this large patrol ship to be operational by the fiscal year 2029.
To address the situation around the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku Islands), the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) reported that the Japan Coast Guard Agency, equivalent to the Coast Guard, allocated a budget in the fiscal year 2023 to investigate the feasibility of constructing a large patrol ship. However, there are concerns within the Japan Coast Guard Agency about whether the large patrol ship can actually be utilized due to manpower shortages.
According to the report, officials stated that the Japan Coast Guard Agency is considering the construction of a large patrol ship with internal facilities that can command other patrol ships, serving as a maritime base for mission execution.
If the large patrol ship is constructed, it could not only respond to the situation around the Diaoyu Islands but also be used to transport residents or assist in natural disasters in emergency situations. The number of high-performance rubber boats that the large patrol ship can carry will exceed the number of patrol ships operated by the Coast Guard Agency during security missions.
In the fiscal year 2023, the Japan Coast Guard Agency allocated tens of millions of yen and commissioned a private company to conduct preliminary investigations on the basic structure of the patrol ship. The investigation report was received in March of this year. The proposed size of the patrol ship is a total length of approximately 200 meters and a total tonnage of around 30,000 tons. If realized, this 30,000-ton ship would be three to four times larger than the Japan Coast Guard Agency’s current largest patrol ship.
The report also mentioned that the large patrol ship would have the capacity to carry a maximum of approximately 1,500 people and considerations are being made to include space for transporting containers. The plan is to construct two of these large patrol ships.