On September 11, the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) announced that three members of its Mobile Cooperation Team (MCT) were dispatched to the Philippines from August 25 to September 7 to provide maritime capacity building to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).
The Japanese team conducted a range of training for the PCG as part of a “Maritime Safety Capability Improvement” project operated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The JCG’s technical assistance to their Philippine counterparts included “[b]oat davit (launching apparatus handling drills) on the 97-meter class Multi Role Response Vessel (MRRV), provided by Japan”.
The first of the Philippines’ MRRVs, “modeled after the Kunisaki (formerly Kunigami) Class Patrol Vessel of the Japan Coast Guard”, were launched in 2021 from the Shimonoseki Shipyard of Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. The PCG currently has in service 2 of these 97-meter MRRVs and in June of this year Manila signed a new official development assistance (ODA) agreement with Tokyo to acquire 5 more.
The Japan-built MRRV is capable of speeds of 24 knots and has an endurance of at least 4,000 nautical miles. As a 1,000 ton-class PL (Patrol vessel Large) type patrol ship, it is the largest vessel in the PCG fleet and significantly enhances “the capabilities of the PCG in conducting maritime search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations”.
The JCG explained that it “will continue to strengthen its cooperation with other coast guard agencies to realize a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)”, and that it will continue to be proactive in providing technical support for the coast guard agencies of Indo-Pacific countries.
Background Information:
https://www.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/e/topics_archive/article6703.html
https://www.jica.go.jp/Resource/philippine/english/office/topics/news/220516.html
https://www.manila-shimbun.com/category/english/news277362.html
https://coastguard.gov.ph/index.php/related/11-news/4130-pcg-s-first-approximately-97-meter-multi-role-response-vessel-launches-in-japan-shipyard
