The Coast Guard in many countries is considered a reserve of the armed forces, mainly the navy. Japan is no exception. Its Coast Guard owns more than a hundred ships (including many large ones, more than three thousand tons in displacement) and a comparable number of aircraft. In articles on military topics, this structure, as a rule, is not mentioned, since it does not refer to the Ministry of Defense or even to the power ministries in general, but to the seemingly harmless Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Especially noteworthy are the two ships of the Shikishima class (the name was inherited from the battleships of the Russo-Japanese War), which are essentially “spare destroyers”. The standard displacement of the Shikishima is 6500 tons, the total displacement is 9300 tons. The length is 150 meters. The crew is 140 people. The destroyer has a wide helipad and two (!) Hangars for the Eurocopter AS332 helicopter. For comparison, the largest URO destroyers of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces "Agato" and "Congo" have only one hangar.
It is armed with two robotic 35mm Oerlikon GDF-005 cannons, two M61 Vulcan rapid-fire cannons, and two Bofors L60 40mm anti-aircraft guns. Places are provided for the installation of cells with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.
Huge autonomy allows "Shikishima" to make the transition from Japan to Europe without refueling. This quality is actively used for patrolling the Senkaku Islands, Okinotorishima Atoll, as well as the Strait of Malacca.
It is noteworthy that if the lead "destroyer" "Shikishima" was built in the period from 1990 to 1992, then the second ship, "Akitsushima", was completed quite recently, in 2013.
Until recently, these ships were considered the largest coast guard ships in the world, until in 2015 the shipyards of China showed their achievement: the new patrol ship of the PRC will reach a displacement of 10,000 tons., but in the number of patrol ships.
Another "reserve destroyer" can be called two ships of the "Mizuho" class, each with a displacement of five and a half thousand tons. The armament roughly corresponds to the "Shikishima", hangars can also accommodate two helicopters. Without additional refueling, everyone is able to cover 8,500 nautical miles or 15,700 km. The order for these ships came after the Iran-Iraq war, when the Japanese first realized that they might have to carry out rescue missions in remote regions of the world.
In the future, the Coast Guard is planned to be strengthened with decommissioned ships of the Self-Defense Forces. In particular, for these purposes it is planned to use the Hatsuyuki-class destroyers, from which the Harpoon anti-ship missiles will be removed, as required by law.
