Unexpected range of Japanese ships granted to Vietnam

With a length of 67.8 m and a width of 7.9 m, the Japanese patrol ship provided to the Vietnam Coast Guard has a range of up to 3,200 nautical miles.

Additional level

According to Kyodo news agency, at a joint press conference in Hanoi on the afternoon of January 16, Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe affirmed that he will strongly support Vietnam in improving its maritime capacity by providing Vietnam with 6 more patrol boats.

At a press conference the same evening, Mr. Kawamura Yasuhisa, spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the total value of the next 6 ships that Japan will provide to Vietnam is about 38.5 billion Japanese yen, using preferential loans from the Japanese Government to Vietnam.

Before Mr. Abe made this commitment, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Hiroshi Fukada also announced that Japan had provided 6 used ships to Vietnam and in the coming time, will continue to provide more patrol ships to the Vietnam Coast Guard.

Japanese patrol boat PM03 Echizen.

According to Japanese media, the ships Japan provided to Vietnam were of the Teshio/Natsui class and were used. For Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Japan has long provided equipment and training for personnel in the fields of transportation and rescue at sea. In 2007, Tokyo also provided Jakarta with three 27m patrol boats.

The type of ship that the Japanese government is providing as a non-refundable aid to the Philippines is about 40 meters long and has a displacement of 180 tons. Based on the current types of patrol ships in Japan, the type chosen could be the PS small patrol ship of the Mihashi/Raizan class.

Japan also provided Vietnam with the Teshio-class PM medium-sized patrol ship, built in the 1980s and named Teshio. It is a 500-ton medium-sized patrol ship based on the improved design of the Bihoro - a patrol ship class that built a series of 20 ships in 1974-1978.

In development strategy, the Japanese are very economical, the exterior design of this class of ship is very similar to the minesweepers of the Navy (ie the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force JMSF).

Main dimensions of Teshio-class PM ship: Length 67.8 m, width 7.9 m, draft 4.4 m, displacement 630 tons, tonnage 526 tons, power 2 diesel engines 3,000 CV, 2 propeller shafts, speed 18 nautical miles/h.

The ship has a range of 3,200 nautical miles. Its main weapon is a 20mm JM61A1 cannon (a 6-barrel, high-velocity M61 Vulcan used by the US and NATO). The ship can operate with a crew of 33.

Modern forces

According to Resolution 72/2014/QH13, the National Assembly has set aside 4,500 billion VND to build 7 new ships and purchase equipment for the Coast Guard.

Among them, there are 2 large patrol ships of 2,400 tons (DN-2000 ships with registration numbers 8004 and 8005), 4 TT-400 patrol ships, and 1 multi-purpose transport ship for refueling at sea.

TT-400 patrol boat built by Vietnam.

A notable point in the process of building the TT-400 patrol ship is that Vietnam (specifically Factory Z173) has shortened the construction time from keel laying to testing to 6 months (instead of 8 months to 1 year as before).

This is thanks to improvements in production arrangement and technology in shipbuilding and ship finishing cycles. As a result, all four newly built TT-400 ships (numbered 4036 - 4039) have been launched, successfully tested by Factory Z173 and officially put into service for the Vietnam Coast Guard.

Unlike the first 4 TT-400 ships (numbers 4031 - 4034), ships No. 6, 7, 8, 9 were built based on the technical design of TT-400 ship No. 5 (4035 is currently under the Coast Guard Region 4) with some technical and tactical features changed to suit the specific operations of the Coast Guard.

With the launch of four more TT-400 patrol boats, in the near future the Vietnam Coast Guard will own up to nine of these modern patrol boats, significantly enhancing its law enforcement capacity at sea.

According to Baodatviet