China Coast Guard Sends Unusual Patrol to Strait of Luzon

 

The China Coast Guard has dispatched three large cutters to the strategic Strait of Luzon, a rare patrol that has caught the attention of Philippine defense planners. 

On August 7, the Canadian-run Dark Vessel Detection system alerted Philippine forces that three China Coast Guard cutters - CCG 3304, 3301 and 4304 - were operating in the Taiwan Strait near Batanes. These movements were unusual for the CCG, so the Philippine Coast Guard dispatched an aircraft to monitor the vessels. 

An Islander aircrew departed an airfield in Manila at 0600 and flew north, towards Batanes. The aircraft found CCG 4304 at a position about 75 nautical miles to the west of Sabtang, a remote island in the middle of the Strait of Luzon. 

The aircrew challenged CCG 4304 over radio, but the Chinese cutter did not respond. The other two CCG vessels were too far off for the Islander aircrew to reach. 

The Strait of Luzon is the gateway to the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, and would be contested in the event of a conflict between China and Taiwan. The Batanes Islands are squarely in the middle of the strait, and the U.S. Marine Corps has tested out the deployment of truck-mounted anti-ship missile launchers to this strategic location. From Batanes, Marine Corps NMESIS launcher systems would have the full width of the Strait of Luzon in range using Kongsberg's Naval Strike Missile (NSM).