Indeed it is - one of the new 1300 tonners by all accounts.
056 class FFL/corvette
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Indeed it is - one of the new 1300 tonners by all accounts.
Quickie
Colonel
I wasn't referring to the front ship but to the 056 behind it. Admittedly I didn't understand what kwai was getting at.
steve_rolfe
Junior Member
If you see comments on other forums about these photos of ships being constructed in the right hand shed at HP.............then yes from the front view, at the back on the right hand side is a type 054A Frigate, to the left of the 054A is a 056 Corvette, and in front of that is a new little cutter.
In the left hand shed, a large unknown vessel is under construction...........difficult to tell what it is coz of the angle of the photo.
What i want to know....is why are the Chinese building so many maritime surveillance ships?
In the left hand shed, a large unknown vessel is under construction...........difficult to tell what it is coz of the angle of the photo.
What i want to know....is why are the Chinese building so many maritime surveillance ships?
consider the size of china's coastline, territorial disputes with japan/Vietnam/Philippines reason should be easy to understand. then consider the size of china's economic capacity, if china is the world's 2nd biggest economy then it's "coast guard" should be similar in size and capabilities as the japan coast guard (world's 3rd biggest economy) and US coast guard.
steve_rolfe
Junior Member
Thanks 'Mr Bean'........haha...............yes I know what you said.......but, its still a lot of new surveillance ships.....maybe China only had a few to begin with...........or maybe the large fleet of surveillance ships has a role, outside of the China seas!
Risking an off topic detour, I think the rationale is quite simple.
The disputes are seen primarily as disputes over Chinese territory. You police your territory and only use your military in International Space.
By beefing up the Coastguard and using these civil forces to patrol and control disputed territories you are actually showing a harder claim as you are demonstrating that this is sovereign under the control of civil authorities.
If you sent military forces instead you are weakening your claim and conceding that there is a dispute and that your claim needs aggressive military support to advance.
The disputes are seen primarily as disputes over Chinese territory. You police your territory and only use your military in International Space.
By beefing up the Coastguard and using these civil forces to patrol and control disputed territories you are actually showing a harder claim as you are demonstrating that this is sovereign under the control of civil authorities.
If you sent military forces instead you are weakening your claim and conceding that there is a dispute and that your claim needs aggressive military support to advance.
joshuatree
Captain
In addition, by only using CG vessels, it would also show one as being less aggressive. Recently, the Philippines has sent 3 naval vessels to monitor the Chinese fishing fleet around Mischief Reef. The naval vessels would look far more aggressive compared to whatever CMS vessel that is out there. So as much as the 056s are being cranked out, we shouldn't expect to see them in these scenarios any time soon.
i'm actually thinking in the near future china might switch to sending "coast guard" type cutters in the 3000-4000 ton displacement to do the Somalia escort duties. right now they use PLAN ships because they value the training ( showing the flag) but it is overkill and expensive way to deal with pirate problem, but later on they might switch to more efficient use of resources. after the 4 civilian maritime agencies are merged and streamlined then the new china coast guard (or whatever it's going to be called) can be called upon for duties farther out. armed chinese civilian law enforcement ships escorting and protecting Chinese flag mechant vessels in international waters makes sense doesn't it?
Such duties in interntional waters, particularly if there is the chance for combat or fire fights, are almost always the job of the military.
While patrolling and conducting non-military anti-drug, or anti-encroachement operations in your own territorial waters would be the job of the Coast Guard.
The US does US both Coast Guard and US Naval vessels jointly in drug interdiction operations away from its shores...but I believe almost all of the anti-pirating duties are reserved for the US Navy.
Since Somalia is so far away requiring repleneshment, and since it involves an international component in conjunction with other nation's navies, I would expect the PLAN to continue these duties.
but you never know.
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