The ''Aso''-class patrol vessel is a class of PL type

patrol vessel A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and they ...

of the

Japan Coast Guard The is the coast guard of Japan. The Japan Coast Guard consists of about 13,700 personnel and is responsible for the protection of the coastline of Japan under the oversight of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Th ...

. PL stands for Patrol vessel Large, and the class is named after

Mount Aso Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

, the largest active

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

in Japan. This class is one of the new patrol vessel classes to intercept spy boats of

DPRK North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and Tu ...

. These classes are called " 高速高機能大型巡視船", ''High-speed, high-functionality patrol vessel, large''. Having

Bofors 40 mm Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

L/70

autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bull ...

with

fire-control system A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a ...

, this class is safely able to deal with heavily armed spy boats of

which intrude into Japanese waters. The hull of this class is

bulletproof Bulletproofing is the process of making an object capable of stopping a bullet or similar high velocity projectiles (e.g. shrapnel). The term bullet resistance is often preferred because few, if any, practical materials provide complete protectio ...

in case of close-range firefights. In the back of the bridge's side, this class has display devices that can be used to instruct other ships to stop even at nighttime. And on the bridge superstructure, this class is equipped with the

LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

system to acquire targets with high accuracy. At the same time, this system enables them to perform

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

missions more safely.

Vietnamese variant

In 2020 there was signed an export deal between

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

over 6 vessel for the Vietnam Coast Guard (VCG), locally designated as the "TT-1500 patrol ship"."TT" stands for "Tuần tra" means "Patrol", meanwhile the number "1500" stands for the class's

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of 1500 tons. According to pieces of information shared by VCG, TT-1500 has a slightly bigger size than the original Aso-class, and it is also equipped with a

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

and the overall design is likely inspired from the successor designs such as the Kunigami-class patrol vessel. The TT-1500 will have a maximum speed of 24 knots, considerably slower than the original Aso, however it is projected to have a better low-speed stability hence making it better for low-intensity patrol and search-and-rescue missions. The delivery for all 6 ships is expected to be completed by October 2026.

Vietnamese variant

Ships in the class

See also

References

Further reading