New OPV may be first in a new series of smaller blue water-capable designs for Chinese Coast Guard. Vessel features modern radar and large calibre main gun.
Chinese shipbuilder Huangpu, based in Guangzhou, Guangdong province in southern China, recently launched a new design of offshore patrol vessel (OPV) for the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG). Imagery circulating on Chinese social media, and subsequently on “X”, showed the new vessel in the water at one of the builders berth spaces.
The new corvette-sized OPV appears to measure around 100 metres, for an estimate displacement of 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes. The ship includes a H/PJ-26 76 mm main gun on the bow. Another notable feature is a rotating AESA-style radar on the main mast above the bridge. The design resembles the SR-2402c Mod 2 compact AESA air and surface search radar promoted by CSSC, the shipbuilding conglomerate of which Huangpu is also a part. At the stern the new vessel seems to have a landing pad suitable for helicopters. An aviation hangar appears to be absent.
Further specifications remain unconfirmed. The ship is likely diesel-powered. Chinese commentators speculate that propulsion may be waterjet-based, however this remains unconfirmed. The allusion to waterjet propulsion may tie the new design to the Hai Kuai 1, an abandoned OPV-design with waterjet propulsion built by Huangpu around 2018. The Hai Kuai, which is of similar size but somewhat different configuration to the new design, has been sitting idle at Huangpu for the last seven years.
Huangpu and Hudong in Shanghai have in recent years engaged in somewhat of a building spree for the CCG. Both yards also supply the Chinese Navy (PLAN) with frigates and corvettes, and are notable for adapting said designs for Coast Guard-use. This includes the Type 054A-series of guided missile frigates and the Type 056-corvette, or “light frigate” in PLAN parlance.
Hudong has recently also commenced on the construction of a new corvette-sized design at its drydock on Changxing Island. How this hull compares to Huangpu’s new OPV for the Chinese Coast Guard remains to be seen. Tom Shugart, a naval analyst and former submarine commander, has measured the Hudong-design at around 108 metres overall length.
Huangpu and Hudong as the traditional suppliers of larger-sized CCG-designs have recently also experienced some added competition by naval shipyard Jiangnan, also based on Changxing Island. Jiangnan has in late 2024 launched a large CCG-hull based on the Type 052D guided missile destroyer. Unlike the Type 052D the CCG-design lacks missile armament and is notably shorter in length. However, the design intriguingly sports a Type 382 planar array-radar, similarly to PLAN Type 054A FFG and some other naval combatants.
As outlined here, Chinese shipbuilders continue to deliver a stream of modern and more capable offshore patrol vessels to CCG. These range across a similar range as naval combatants for PLAN, from corvette- all the way up to destroyer-sized designs. Beyond equipping CCG with a more modern fleet, a further effect is how this construction program also keeps shipyards busy with government-contracts beyond military modernisation of the Chinese Navy.
