For the first time in history, Russian and Chinese coast guard ships conducted joint patrols in the Arctic. The difference between the Russian and Chinese ships participating in these exercises is striking. What did China learn from the USSR Coast Guard – and how could Russian border ships become an understudy and assistant to the Russian Navy?
The Russian and Chinese structures involved in the border protection of maritime borders have the same name – the Coast Guard. However, the Chinese department was formed for completely different reasons than the Russian one, and this is clearly visible from their ships. The Chinese Coast Guard is a paramilitary structure subordinate to the Central Military Council of the People's Republic of China, headed by an officer from the ranks of the Navy of the People's Liberation Army of China. But it wasn't right away.
The Chinese formed their Coast Guard in 2013 from civilian and police formations that were originally part of the People's Armed Police, the Maritime Police Border Force, the Fisheries Control Command, Customs and the Chinese Ocean Surveillance Service.
The Coast Guard of the Chinese Oceanic Administration was subordinate. It is a civilian structure mainly focused on working in the exclusive economic zone and territorial waters, issuing permits for laying bottom cables, protecting the environment, combating crime at sea and using marine resources.
Thus, the Chinese Coast Guard was created as a civilian law enforcement agency. But in 2018, all these command authorities were abolished, and the Coast Guard came under the control of the military.
The Russian Coast Guard has gone the opposite way. Once upon a time, back in the USSR, the Maritime units of the Border Troops (MCHPV) were responsible for the maritime borders The KGB OF THE USSR.
It was actually the second Soviet Navy. He was able to fight submarines, had ships that could conduct naval combat and shoot down enemy aircraft.
The presence of its own anti-submarine capabilities, a huge fleet of ships, often very fast, and the general training of officers with the Navy made the Ministry of Emergency Situations a military organization that would fight with the Navy in the event of war. The Ministry of Emergency Situations even had ships of a "military" gray color. But the collapse of the USSR changed everything.
After 1991, Russian maritime border guards were constantly reorganized. It was only in the mid-2000s that they began to be brought to a stable state. Coast Guard (BOHR) The Border Guard Service of the FSB of Russia was established on July 20, 2004, and from that moment its modern history begins. And – divergence in ways with Chinese comrades – the new structure was created primarily as a law enforcement, not a military one.
At that time, Russia was striving for integration into global structures, and such a move was absolutely logical. If in the USSR the Ministry of Emergency Situations was the "second fleet", then in Russia the BOHR became a kind of example of the "marine police". This was the starting point, for example, when ordering ships. Instead of simplified versions of warships ordered by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, BOHR ordered patrol ships that were not intended for combat, but were perfectly suited for patrol and law enforcement tasks.
Russia did not need a "military" coast guard at that moment. China acted in the same way in those years, seeing in its Coast Guard the very same marine police, just a big one.
The first signal that the Coast Guard might have to fight instead of fighting poachers was the incident at the Kerch Bridge on November 25, 2018. Then the patrol patrol ship BOHR "Don" had to carry out a bulk attack on a Ukrainian tugboat, and one of the Ukrainian boats of the "Gyurza" type even had to make a shot.
After the incident, the Ukrainian side distributed a photo of the project 745 RCMP (in fact, it is a tugboat armed with two AK-306 artillery launchers) in the sight of the Gyurzy. The Navy boat was separated from the shooting of our ship by one click of a button. There would be nothing to answer the BOHR guardsman with. It is clear that then the Gyurza would have been drowned, but that would have been later.
So the question arose about the validity of the "police" bias in the preparation and organization of the BOHR. Military-technical measures were also taken. For example, after the incident, 76-mm cannons were put back on the project 10140 "Firefly" instead of 30-mm AK-306 installations.
The second call was the provocation of the British Navy off the coast of Crimea in June 2021, when the British destroyer Defender invaded the territorial waters of the Russian Federation near Crimea. The PSKR of project 22460 was thrown into interception – one of the newest BOHR ships, just created to carry out "police" functions: one 30-mm artillery mount on the bow, 25 knots of speed (against 30 for the Britons), 600 tons of standard displacement.
This ship is perfect for patrolling the maritime border or the exclusive economic zone. It has excellent habitable conditions, there is a swimming pool, and a helicopter landing deck on the stern. That's just when this ship collided with a missile destroyer. As we know today, despite all the claims about peaceful passage, the British ship was ready to immediately launch missiles at our patrol ship.
After almost three years, the SVO began. The Coast Guard began to perform tasks during the special operation, among other things. The armament of her ships was also strengthened. For example, 30-mm AK-306 artillery installations began to be installed on small PKRS of project 22120 "Blizzard", hitherto armed only with machine guns.
And now the autumn of 2024 is coming, and the Chinese have sent two patrol ships "Meishan" and "Xiushan" for joint exercises with Russia in an area where only the United States or its allies are among the opponents. These are essentially disarmed frigates of Project 054 – a modification of the most massive ocean-going ship in the Chinese Navy.
Chinese patrol ships are built according to military standards of combat survivability, carry a full set of electronic weapons of a warship, including artillery fire control systems and jamming stations. The ship has not only a bow artillery installation, but also anti-aircraft guns to control the aft sector. And the speed of a warship is up to 27 knots minimum. They can maneuver as part of detachments of Naval warships.
Russia has put up for exercises the patrol ship of the project 22100 (code "Ocean") Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – the best post-Soviet Pskov, a magnificent ship for patrol duty. But he was not created for war. The second BOHR "unit" in the exercises was the unarmed ship of project 22120 (code "Blizzard"), another excellent peacetime project. The Chinese comrades are clearly suggesting a path that could be appropriate for the Russian Coast Guard.
The situation in the world is heating up. It is possible that in the foreseeable future our sailors, including the sailors of the Coast Guard, will have to go into battle against a strong enemy. The key to their readiness for this could be changes in approaches to shipbuilding for BOHR.
There are already some signs of such changes. The 22100 series has been cancelled. Project 22460 ships are no longer being ordered. New "babies" of the 22120 Anadyr project are not being ordered – if they were previously laid every year, then in 2024 there was not a single bookmark. The construction of the wonderful "Fireflies" of the 10140 project continues. From what BOHR has for combat and war in general, this is the most suitable project.
It is worth thinking about doing again as they did in the USSR and as they are doing now in China – designing and building ships for the Coast Guard, which, after retrofitting with quick-installation weapons and equipment, could participate in battles together with Navy ships and perform combat missions not only in peacetime, but also in wartime. The motto of Vice Admiral Sergei Makarov "Remember the war!" is more relevant today than ever for maritime border guards. And what the Chinese comrades showed at the exercises confirms this once again.
Alexander Timokhin
