China Coast Guard's New Large Patrol Ships Feature Military-Grade Air Search Radars, Raise Questions About Wartime Roles

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Oct 24, 2025

One of the more interesting aspects of the ongoing modernization and expansion of the China Coast Guard (CCG) concerns the installation of military-grade air search radars on the CCG’s new large patrol ships. While the CCG previously received many second-hand People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships that were modified—stripped of most armament and military-grade equipment—for use as CCG patrol vessels, the CCG is now receiving new-build large patrol ships, some of which are derivatives of designs in use with the PLAN. The CCG is a paramilitary coast guard organization that falls under the paramilitary People’s Armed Police (PAP) and is under the command of China’s Central Military Commission in much the same manner as the PLA. It is important to note that the CCG is one of three Chinese coast guard-type organizations alongside the civilian China Maritime Safety Administration (CMSA) and the civilian China Rescue and Salvage Bureau. Primarily tasked with so-called sovereignty enforcement operations in disputed waters, part of the CCG fleet, which is best characterized as the CCG’s “high seas fleet,” appears to exist to spearhead a PLAN-backstopped quarantine/blockade-type operation in the event of a major crisis over the political fate of Taiwan

As a paramilitary organization, the CCG is no stranger to armed patrol ships, with armament typically amounting to some combination of machine guns, autocannons, and, on larger CCG ships, a medium caliber naval gun. CCG patrol ships are not equipped with anti-ship cruise missiles, a type of armament that the United States Coast Guard notably planned to deploy on its largest patrol ships in the 1990s prior to the end of the Cold War, or surface-to-air missile systems. As a result, the CCG’s new patrol ships derived from the PLAN’s 052D-class destroyer and Type 054A-class frigate designs are heavily downgraded in naval terms. This notably includes the complete removal of the all-important vertical launch system (VLS) cells.

While the CCG’s new 052D-class destroyer and Type 054A-class frigate derivatives are largely stripped of military-grade equipment, these are notably equipped with dedicated air search/acquisition radars, which is very unusual among coast guard vessels, with the primary exception of the United States Coast Guard’s Legend-class patrol ships and its preceding Hamilton-class patrol ships.

The CCG’s Type 052D-class destroyer derivatives are equipped with a Type 382 air search/acquisition radar, which is primarily installed on the PLAN’s large fleet of Type 054A-class frigates. In addition to the removal of the two clusters of VLS cells, the CCG’s Type 052D-class destroyer derivatives do not feature the destroyer design’s distinctive four large Type 346 phased array radar antennas. The Type 382 is not an advanced radar design by contemporary standards, and the CCG’s Type 052D-class destroyer derivatives would amount to a very significant downgrade even if these white-painted hulls were equipped with the 64 VLS cells found on the PLAN Type 052D-class destroyers.

The CCG’s Type 054A-class frigate derivatives are equipped with a Type 360 air search/acquisition radar. This is a very outdated but widely deployed radar design that is, in terms of the numbers deployed, primarily associated with the PLAN’s Type 056A-class corvettes. It is worth noting that the CCG operates 20 ex-PLAN Type 056-class—not Type 056A-class—corvettes that were stripped of much of their armament when decommissioned from the PLAN. All things considered, the Type 360 amounts to the bare minimum of an air search/acquisition radar for any Chinese vessel, whether painted gray in the manner of PLAN ships or white in the manner of CCG ships. The CCG’s Type 054A-class frigate derivatives, therefore, amount to a very significant downgrade even if these white-painted hulls were equipped with the 32 VLS cells and eight deck-mounted anti-ship cruise missiles found on the PLAN’s Type 054A-class frigates.

Given the above, the CCG’s Type 052D-class destroyer and Type 054A-class frigate derivatives amount to major downgrades relative to the underlying PLAN warship designs. The CCG is, however, also receiving a new class of waterjet-propelled patrol ships that are not only exclusive to the CCG but also feature an air search/acquisition radar, one of the phased array variety, unlike the Type 382 and Type 360, that has so far not appeared on any PLAN warship.

As with the CCG’s Type 052D-class destroyer and Type 054-class frigate derivatives, the CCG’s new waterjet-powered patrol ships feature an air search/acquisition radar but have minimal anti-aircraft capabilities. These CCG patrol ships are, therefore, equipped in this manner to detect aircraft and surveil airspace, not to intercept aircraft or extend air defence coverage over other CCG vessels and the vessels of the China Maritime Militia in the disputed waters of the South China Sea and East China Sea. Stated differently, the CCG remains reliant on the PLA in general and the PLAN in particular for air defence coverage, although a growing part of the CCG can contribute to the PLAN’s sensor coverage should CCG patrol ships be equipped with suitable datalinks.

The installation of air search radars on the CCG’s latest new-build patrol ships raises questions about the future trajectory of the CCG and its role in supporting PLAN operations. While this primarily concerns the subset of the highly heterogeneous fleet of CCG vessels that constitute its “high seas fleet,” the entire CCG fleet is likely to be subordinate to the PLAN in a major conflict in the Western Pacific. Although CCG vessels are likely to serve as escorts in wartime, the CCG’s current fleet, including its Type 052D-class destroyer and Type 054A-class frigate derivatives, is not well suited for this role. Consider, for example, how the CCG’s Type 052D-class and Type 054A-class derivatives do not appear to be “fitted for but not with” VLS cells, which is to say that these white-painted CCG patrol ships derived from PLAN warship designs cannot be readily “converted” into warships on relatively short notice in wartime.

While there is scope for the expedient wartime installations of short and even medium-range air defence systems, land-attack munitions, and anti-ship missiles on CCG patrol ships in wartime, the CCG’s patrol vessels will always remain vulnerable to underwater attack. As of this writing, there is no indication that the CCG’s latest large patrol ships, including its Type 052D-class destroyer and Type 054A-class frigate derivatives, are equipped with, or even fitted for, anti-submarine sensors (beyond a possible box sonar) or armaments. It bears emphasis that these CCG patrol ships have heavily modified stern sections, which are where towed array sonars and variable depth sonars are installed on the underlying PLAN warship designs. As things stand, the CCG’s wartime role remains unclear, and China is not equipping CCG vessels in ways that make the most of either the sustained presence of so many vessels at sea on a given day or the inherent potential of a large fleet of escort ships in wartime.

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