Identifying the configuration of Japanese patrol ships built for Vietnam

In June this year, Japan said it would provide ODA to build six modern patrol boats for the Vietnam Coast Guard.

» Japan provides patrol boats to Nghe An

On October 11, the Philippine Coast Guard held a ceremony to receive a 44-meter multi-purpose patrol vessel (MRRV-4407) donated by Japan. This is the 6th MMRV out of 10 ships that Tokyo has committed to providing credit for Manila to build.

According to information from Nippon Marine Union Company (construction unit), the MRRV ship is 44 m long, 7.5 m wide, equipped with 2 MTU 12V 4000 M93L diesel engines, for a cruising speed of 15 nautical miles/h, and a 25 mm automatic cannon is installed in the front of the ship.

The fleet of 10 MRRVs is expected to join the older Hamiltons transferred by the US Coast Guard to help the Southeast Asian nation better protect its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.

Japanese patrol vessel MRRV-4407 has just been handed over to the Philippine Coast Guard.

Another detail to note is that not only the Philippines, in June this year, within the framework of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's visit to Japan, a Deputy Minister-level meeting took place between the two Defense Ministries of Vietnam and Japan.

The information that attracted attention during the above talks was that Japan said it would provide ODA to build 6 new patrol boats for the Vietnam Coast Guard.

Following the security meeting between the Japanese Foreign Minister and the Japanese and US Defense Ministers in Washington on August 17, the statement was issued at a joint press conference.

In a statement, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono reiterated that Toko will provide a total of 16 patrol boats to the Vietnam Coast Guard and the Philippine Coast Guard under the country's official development assistance program.

The support plan, which runs from this year until the end of 2019, aims to help countries on the coasts of the Indo-Pacific region strengthen their maritime security capabilities.

Philippine MRRV patrol vessel fleet built by Japan

Based on the above data, it can be seen that there is a very high possibility that the 6 ships Japan is about to build for Vietnam will have a similar configuration to the MRRVs that this country is building for the Philippines, because they are all in the same total aid package of 16 ships, designing 2 separate classes of ships for 2 neighboring countries is unreasonable.

Furthermore, previous predictions also stated that newly built ships for Vietnam under ODA aid will have a length of around 40 m, a parameter very similar to MMRV.

If the six new 40-meter patrol boats from Japan are added, this will be a necessary addition to the TT-400 squadron of the Vietnam Coast Guard to undertake the task of law enforcement in coastal waters.

According to Dat Viet Newspaper