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10,000 ton-class maritime patrol vessel

The Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration signed a contract for China's first 10,000 ton-class maritime patrol vessel on 26 March 2019, which experts said could sail the high seas and provide assistance to Chinese and foreign ships in need. Under the contract, the ship will be constructed by Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Company under China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited.

This vessel is a bit of a puzzle. It was not contained in the Provincial 36-Ship Program of a few years back. And that probram drew a clear distinction between provincial level vessels, displacing 600 to 1,500 tons, and state level vessels, displacing from 3,000 to 12,000 tons. With a displacement of 10,700 tons, this vessel would be larger than the largest surface warships of every navy in the world apart from Russia, China, and the USofA. Precisely why a province should need such a high seas capability remains a bit of a mystery.

Designed by the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation's No.701 Research Institute, the ship will be 165 meters long and 20.6 meters wide and have a displacement of 10,700 tons, according to the statement. Reports claimed that the ship will become China's first 10,000-ton class maritime patrol vessel and act as the country's flagship for high seas patrol and rescue operations, serving China's strategy of becoming a major ocean power.

South China's Guangdong Province is an important starting point and coastal hub of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Global Times. The large maritime patrol vessel could play a significant role as Guangdong will face more and more maritime tasks as the BRI develops, Li said.

Missions for the ship will include comprehensive law enforcement, emergency search and rescue, taking part in international maritime exchanges and cooperation and conducting maritime-related trainings. As a large ship it can carry more sailors, personnel and equipment and sail in rough seas, Li said, noting that it can also carry out longer missions and sail further distances than smaller patrol vessels.

The ship could have a crew of 100, accommodate 200 people rescued and host multiple types of helicopters, files show. The ship will not only rescue Chinese ships in peril, but help foreign ones in need. The vessel should be delivered within two and a half years, according to a procurement notice released by Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration in April 2018. China has experience with ships of a similar caliber, as the China Coast Guard already has two 10,000-ton class cutters,

Coast Guard 2901, the first vessel in a class of two ships, are the largest of their kind in the world. The world's largest coast guard patrol vessels in active service are the Shikishima-class PLH31 Shikishima and PLH 32 Akitsushima of the Japan Coast Guard. With a full displacement of 9,500 tons, this class of vessel has two 35-mm twin cannons, two 20-mm guns and can carry two helicopters.