Coast Guards Welcome OPV Boom

Asia-Pacific navies focus on OPVs to counter China but struggle with budgets and inter-service rivalry.

- Tim Fish

Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) have gained in stature in the Indo-Pacific region as maritime security has come sharply into focus for governments. The economic and political value of Economic Exclusive Zones (EEZs) has been realised by leaders due to regulations under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and countries in the region are belatedly prioritising investment in new ships of this kind.

OPVs are operated by a mix of naval and coastguard forces although this depends on each country’s maritime security structure. Dr Collin Koh Swee Lean, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore told AMR that there are two main issues: “The biggest issue has always been funding and this is related to the second biggest: inter-service problems. This is often a barrier to establishing a maritime security architecture, which has an impact downstream about how they allocate resources more optimally.” This is especially the case in the sub-region of South East Asia where rival naval and coastguard services compete for limited funding.

Another trend in the region according to Dr Colin Koh is that the line between OPV and corvettes is often blurred. “Shipbuilders tell clients that if you buy a full-size OPVs then the heaviest armament can be a gun with helicopters, but these can be scaled up to become a light frigate,” he said. This is notable in a few OPV acquisition programmes where designs are flexible for the addition of advanced sensors and weapons if required.