China Coast Guard and Patrol vessels

TK3600 said:

Seems kinda overkill for coast guard. 054A is a pretty capable ship I am surprised to see it retire to coast guard so soon.

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Papua New Guinea recently delegated its EEZ law enforcement to the US coast guard to stop "illegal fishing activities by foreign vessels".

If China needs to escort its fishing fleets deep down south, coast guard ships based on the 054A hull are better choices than those based on 056A.

TK3600 said:

Seems kinda overkill for coast guard. 054A is a pretty capable ship

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I'm not sure it's overkill, given what China's "coast guard" is tasked to do. These ships go all the way out to the far reaches of the SCS contesting territory with the Philippines, Vietnam, etc.

Deploying the navy too often would give the appearance of belligerence. It would also contradict China's assertion that those are Chinese territories. After all, you're supposed to use your coast guard to patrol your own territory. Using the navy makes you look like the aggressor.

Maybe that's part of the reason we're seeing a lot of navy ships like the Type 054 and 056 re-configured for use with the "coast guard".

THX 1138 said:

I'm not sure it's overkill, given what China's "coast guard" is tasked to do. These ships go all the way out to the far reaches of the SCS contesting territory with the Philippines, Vietnam, etc.

Deploying the navy too often would give the appearance of belligerence. It would also contradict China's assertion that those are Chinese territories. After all, you're supposed to use your coast guard to patrol your own territory. Using the navy makes you look like the aggressor.

Maybe that's part of the reason we're seeing a lot of navy ships like the Type 054 and 056 re-configured for use with the "coast guard".

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I very much doubt that any CCG vessels will be equipped with VLS tubes or a comparable level of firepower. 76mm gun and a few CIWS are more than enough for a coast guard boat. I think it's far more likely that the shipyards are simply taking advantage of accumulated expertise by using similar hulls. Why start from scratch when you already have a perfectly good design?

Wrought said:

I very much doubt that any CCG vessels will be equipped with VLS tubes or a comparable level of firepower. 76mm gun and a few CIWS are more than enough for a coast guard boat. I think it's far more likely that the shipyards are simply taking advantage of accumulated expertise by using similar hulls. Why start from scratch when you already have a perfectly good design?

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With scale its very cheap too. In this proxy war in the SCS, numbers count, the US and the Philippine Coast guard need to replenished and can't always patrol 24 hour per day those contested shoal, once you seized and hold it, its yours. A perfect example is the Scarborough Shoal situated right in our doorstep in Zambales. The Chinese maintain a large vessel inside the shoal with 3 to 4 ship supporting it around the periphery. The Philippine can't dislodged it even with an advantage of proximity unless they're willing to go to war. You can see the rationale of beaching the old rusting Sierra Madre LST. the warship is part of National sovereignty, destroying it is an act of war BUT if abandoned then it become an ecological issue. So that is the Chinese strategy, the dilapidated ship can't survive numerous typhoon anyway.

The 5th 054A-mod hull for the CCG has been launched at the old HZ site just two days ago. Posted by @种花家的小姐姐2 on Weibo.

It's 4th and 5th. right?

ACuriousPLAFan said:

The 5th 054A-mod hull for the CCG has been launched at the old HZ site just two days ago. Posted by @种花家的小姐姐2 on Weibo.

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Hold on, these new ships are practically 054As, just without the VLS and main radar.

Are these where the old 054A orders got diverted to after the decision to switch to 054B? It'll be interesting to keep the ~10 ships count which was rumored to be amended into 054B orders and see if CCG got 10 extra 054A-derived cutters.

Plus some of the major subsystems like VLS and CIWS might have been ordered early, and now 054B has the same VLS and CIWS. The CIWS I can understand, but VLS might be more interesting...

The Observer said:

Hold on, these new ships are practically 054As, just without the VLS and main radar.

Are these where the old 054A orders got diverted to after the decision to switch to 054B? It'll be interesting to keep the ~10 ships count and see if CCG got 10 extra 054A derived cutters.

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That is my suspicion but I have no evidence to support it.

The Observer said:

Hold on, these new ships are practically 054As, just without the VLS and main radar.

Are these where the old 054A orders got diverted to after the decision to switch to 054B? It'll be interesting to keep the ~10 ships count which was rumored to be amended into 054B orders and see if CCG got 10 extra 054A-derived cutters.

Plus some of the major subsystems like VLS and CIWS might have been ordered early, and now 054B has the same VLS and CIWS. The CIWS I can understand, but VLS might be more interesting...

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By this logic it means they are discontinuing old 054A for military purpose? Or are they still building both concurrently.

TK3600 said:

By this logic it means they are discontinuing old 054A for military purpose? Or are they still building both concurrently.

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Purely from a random guess, I'd say it's diversion of Military 054A contact to CCG. That way they can use the long lead items that were already procured/built by the time the decision to switch to 054B came.

For the subsystems like CIWS and VLS, 054B seems to share them with 054A. What we don't know is whether it is intentional from the start (especially with the VLS), or it's a last minute change to accomodate the subsystems that were already purchased for 054A contract.

As for 054A design, I'd guess they've discontinued making it for military, but the basic design can still be used for CCG and export. And if the need came for more military 054A, they could always bring out the old blueprints.