An ex-PLAN Type 056 corvette undergoing conversion for Coast Guard duties.

I reported transfer of 22 Type 056 covettes from the PLA Navy to the China Coast Guard back in November and discussed the implications, but now we have a better photograph and some commentary from Naval News.

The air-search radar, radar fire control, and 76mm gun remain. The ship is now equipped with fire-fighting monitors where the anti-ship cruise missiles were previously installed amidships, on the O-1 deck, above the letter “U” in GUARD.

For the first time, looking at the photo, I realized these ships are armed with an autocannon, I was not familiar with, the 30mm H/PJ-17, a single barrel optionally manned system, that is mounted on the O-1 deck aft of the bridge and below the fire control radar. As can be seen in the photo below, the bulwark can swing down to allow the gun to depress to a greater angle. This may have been in order to fire at targets at close range, or it may have been to allow the gun to continue to follow a target even when the ship is experiencing heavy rolls. I have not been able to find out much about these weapons.

Chinese H/PJ-17 30mm

Information on the Yinhe Incident referred to in the Naval News report is here.