Vietnamese put into operation a coastguard boat, CBS 8001, in a ceremony held in southern coastal Vung Tau city on Wednesday. It is the most advanced coastguard boat in all of Southeast Asia. On the morning of November 27, the Zone III Maritime Police, under the Vietnam Coast Guard Command, received the boat from the Defense Ministry’s Z189 Plant, which built the vessel according to the design of and the technology transferred by the Netherlands’s Damen Group. As a multifunctional patrol boat with preeminent features, the CBS 8001 is the most modern marine police boat in South East Asia. The vessel, which is 90.5 meters long and 14 meters wide, has a freeboard length of 7 meters and a displacement of more than 2,500 tons.
The boat is equipped with a landing field for 14-ton helicopters, a lot of advanced equipment for search and rescue, many lifeboats, and two hose reels that eject water at a high speed. With a 12,000 horsepower engine, the vessel can travel at a maximum speed of 21 nautical miles per hour over a period of 60 consecutive days at sea.
During rescue and salvage activities, the boat can accommodate 120 people and tow boats with a displacement of 2,200 tons. Before arriving in Vung Tau, the boat had carried a working group of the Defense Ministry to visit Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago and the DK1 oilrig in the East Sea. Speaking at the ceremony, Major Nguyen Duc Tuyen, the captain of the CSB 8001, said, “This advanced boat gives naval officers and soldiers more confidence in carrying out their duties and enforcing laws in sea waters that belong to Vietnam’s sovereignty.”