Vietnam Coast Guard receives new high-speed patrol boat
The Vietnam Coast Guard (VCG) of Zone 4 on July 27 was given a high-speed patrol boat, the fifth of its kind built by Hong Ha Shipbuilding Co., about one month after the vessel was handed over to the High Command of the Vietnam Coast Guard at the firm’s facility in the northern city of Hai Phong.
The TT400-class vessel, numbered CSB 4035, was assigned to the VCG of Zone 4, which manages and protects the southern waters of Vietnam from Tra Vinh to Kien Giang Provinces and part of the Gulf of Thailand, in which Phu Quoc Island is located.
The VCG of Zone 4 is headquartered on Phu Quoc.
Vietnamese-built TT400-class vessels, tasked with conducting maritime border patrols, reconnaissance, and maritime surveillance operations, are armed with two 14.5 mm air-defense guns, one AK 176 76 mm automatic cannon, and one radar-guided, six-barreled 30 mm AK 630 close-in weapon system turret, defense news website IHS Jane's reported.
According to IHS Jane's Fighting Ships, the 420-tonne TT400 can reach a top speed of 34.5 knots and has a standard range of 2,500 nautical miles at 15 knots.
Each vessel, which can operate continuously for 30 days and nights in a row at sea, can carry a crew of 35.
Lieutenant Colonel Le Tien Chau, captain of coast guard force No. 401 under the VCG of Zone 4, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the new boat has joined many operations during a 20-day voyage from Hai Phong to Phu Quoc, including pushing away foreign vessels that entered Vietnamese waters without permission and catching a foreign ship red-handed illegally selling fuel to local fishing boats.
The Vietnamese coast guard vessel on July 24 detected two Thailand-flagged ships, TAKUZAN and another bearing no name, pumping diesel oil into two Vietnamese boats in Vietnam’s waters after many days of tracking them.
The two foreign ships, carrying about 400,000 liters of diesel oil without any documentation or legal bills, and the two Vietnamese boats were then detained for further investigation.
The VCG took delivery of its fourth TT400-class patrol boat, the HQ 275, from Hong Ha Shipbuilding Co. last September.
The vessel was the second TT400 patrol boat to be commissioned in 2014, following the launch of the third in May.
The first two ships of the same class, HQ 272 and HQ 273, were commissioned in January 2012 and August 2012 respectively, according to IHS Jane's.
Earlier this month, the Vietnam Coast Guard received two advanced ships, including a coast guard vessel with a helipad on board and a towing and rescuing boat from Song Thu Corporation, under the Ministry of Defense’s Industrial General Department.
The state-owned shipbuilder transferred the vessels, CSB 8002 and CBS 9004, to the High Command of the VCG during a ceremony at Song Thu Port in the central city of Da Nang on July 9.
The CSB 8004 would be assigned to the VCG of Zone 2, while the CSB 9004 would be added to the fleet of the VCG of Zone 1, said Major General Nguyen Quang Dam, commander of the VCG.