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A Chinese state-owned shipbuilder has announced that it has presented a design for a “mother ship” for the coast guard.
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Military bloggers in China speculate that it could be an aircraft carrier or a high-seas drone platform.
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If so, it would be an unprecedented asset for a law enforcement agency, although Japan also has plans for it.
In early August, military bloggers began buzzing over a small detail on social media from a Chinese shipbuilder.
The state-owned 708th Shipbuilding Research Institute said on August 8 that it is planning something new to meet the needs of the local coast guard: a “mother ship” that can operate in distant seas.
Little else was revealed about the project, with the announcement saying only that the institute had presented the ship’s design at a conference on coast guard equipment in Zhejiang.
The shipbuilder said the vessel was designed according to the Coast Guard’s “system and mission requirements.”
But the Chinese words for ‘mothership’ are also the words used for ‘carrier’, leading local bloggers to discuss seriously thinking about what the new ship could be.
It would be unique for a law enforcement agency to deploy a ship similar to an aircraft carrier, as the Coast Guard typically relies on smaller, faster vessels.
However, China has recently begun looking for larger, more powerful vessels for its coast guard, which bear a striking resemblance to China’s naval vessels, signaling that Beijing has ambitious plans for the organization.
It was sent in early summer two new gigantic “monster ships” in the South China Sea, surprising its neighbors. Each ship displaces 12,000 tons and is 541 feet long, three times the size of the U.S. Coast Guard cutters.
“Size does matter,” John Michael Dahm, a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer and senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Business Insider. “The size and displacement of a ship often translate directly to capabilities. A bigger ship means more people, more weapons, more fuel, more endurance, more range.”
Some bloggers There was speculation that the new “mothership” could be an aircraft carrier, although the Chinese coast guard rarely uses manned aircraft in its day-to-day operations.
It is more likely, others assumedthat Beijing is planning a drone platform or a helicopter landing pad that can sail on the high seas.
The world’s first drone carriers?
Without photos or videos of the design, international experts can only guess at what shape the ship will take.
Maritime drone platforms are still a new concept, but there are signs that China is building at least one. In May, Dahm identified a large Chinese ship under construction at a shipyard in Jiangsu that he said was likely the the world’s first dedicated drone carrier.
However, that shipyard is run by a different shipbuilder, so there is no evidence that this Jiangsu aircraft carrier is related to the Coast Guard’s “mother ship.”
It is not yet clear to Dahm whether this new coast guard ship is equivalent to an aircraft carrier in terms of functionality and tonnage.
“I’m often surprised at how right Chinese bloggers can be about these kinds of things, but in this case I think they’re overhyping the ‘mothership,’” he said.
According to the 708th Shipbuilding Research Institute, the “mothership” would provide “extensive support,” and Dahm believes smaller Chinese coast guard vessels could fulfill this role.
“I think the Chinese are trying to create more options,” said Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Koh also believes the “mothership” is more of a drone carrier, with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 tons, than a large 85,000-ton aircraft carrier.
The Chinese coast guard already has a large fleet of more than 200 patrol vessels. But if it wants to continue fighting for territory in the South China Sea — its most high-profile theater of operations — it will have to figure out how to efficiently repair and resupply its ships remotely.
A drone carrier could circumvent that problem, Koh said, allowing Beijing to maintain a 24/7 presence by deploying drones in a central location and deploying them repeatedly.
“If you put drones and small craft in a very strategic area, it can have quite a long range. That is probably the Chinese strategy,” Koh said.
It is noteworthy that Japan is planning a similar large coast guard vessel which it says will displace about 30,000 tons and will be an “offshore base” for other ships. The largest ship in the current Coast Guard fleet is 6,500 tons.
China’s ‘distant seas’ phrase could be a clue
The 708th’s description of its new ship as a “distant sea” support vessel also indicates that Beijing plans to deploy its coast guard overseas as well.
Over the past 10 years, China has promoted the idea of defending its interests abroad with naval vessels, in the same way that the US Navy patrols waters around the world.
“As part of its Belt and Road Initiative strategy, China appears to be increasing the role and presence of its coast guard in the South Pacific, after doing the same in Southeast Asia,” said Benjamin Blandin, researcher and network coordinator at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies.
“But there is a big step from planning to operational reality,” he added. China still needs a network of ports and supply points to operate efficiently on the high seas.
According to Dahm, China can more easily position its ships on foreign territory if they are painted in the colors of the coast guard.
“It looks much better to China when coast guard ships cooperate with host country law enforcement than a big gray warship full of missiles,” he said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s International Press Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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