The Japanese Coast Guard wants to build the world’s largest cutter, a 30,000-ton behemoth that would dwarf the Chinese Coast Guard’s monolithic CCG 5901, the current defending champion.
The Japanese Coast Guard will allocate $24 million in its next budget to begin construction of a 200-meter-long mega-cutter. The vessel will have a far broader range of duties than a typical coastal patrol vessel and will have many of the capabilities of a small-deck amphibious vehicle.
The giant “maritime base” cutter would have room to accommodate up to 1,000 people in the event of a natural disaster, have deck space for three helicopters for emergency response, and have provisions for launching and recovering small boats. It would have significant intervention capabilities in the event of a major earthquake or national defense situation. It would also be large enough to dominate confrontations with the Chinese coast guard and illegal fishing operators, but the Japan Coast Guard says the vessel will not carry a deck gun and will not be deployed to the Senkaku Islands, the area where the agency most often encounters Chinese forces.
The total cost of construction is estimated at around $470 million. If sufficient funding is available, work could begin as early as next year. Completion is planned for 2029.
If built, the Japanese Coast Guard would have the largest cutter in the world by a wide margin, dwarfing the U.S. Coast Guard’s Legend-class National Security Cutter, the Japanese Coast Guard’s Shikishima-class cutter, and the Chinese Coast Guard’s Zhaotou-class cutter (known abroad as the “monster” cutter). However, if the new giant ship does not have machine guns, it may not technically qualify for the list of “armed” cutters.
