The Shantou class gunboat, was a Chinese built gunboat

Gunboat

A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...

 of the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

's People's Liberation Army Navy

People's Liberation Army Navy

The People's Liberation Army Navy is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army , the military of the People's Republic of China. Until the early 1990s, the navy performed a subordinate role to the PLA Land Forces. Since then, it has undergone rapid modernisation...

. Known in the United States as the "Swatow" class gunboat; it was based on the Soviet P-6 class torpedo boat

Torpedo boat

A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...

. The boat is designated as Type 55A (55 Jia Xing, 55甲型). Instead of being wooden hulled, and consisting of torpedoes as the main armament, the Shantou class is steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

-hulled, with guns as the main armament. The Shantou (or Swatow) is the predecessor of the Type 062 class gunboat

Type 062 class gunboat

The Type 062 class gunboat is a class of gunboats of the People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army Navy. Successor to the Shantou class gunboat, it is also known by its NATO reporting name Shanghai-I and Shanghai-II. The class is larger than its predecessor and is the most widely built...

, or more commonly known as the Shanghai-I & II class.

Service history

Entering service from 1955 through 1960, these vessels were completely removed from naval service by the mid-1990s, and were transferred to civilian law enforcement agencies. However, just like the Beihai, Huangpu

Huangpu class gunboat

Huangpu class gunboats were gunboats of the People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army Navy. They entered service in the 1970s and had been completely taken out of active service by the early 2000s and were transferred to law enforcement agencies...

, and Yulin

Yulin class gunboat

Yulin class gunboats were gunboats of the People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army Navy. They first entered service in the 1960s, but had been completely taken out of active service by the late 1990s, and were transferred to law enforcement agencies...

 class gunboats which had been transferred to law enforcement agencies, these obsolete and aging boats were not satisfactory in their new civilian roles, due largely to their low maximum speed (10 knots), which was not sufficient enough to catch the smugglers' high speed motorboats. As a result, these boats were subsequently transferred again, this time to the reserves; or subordinated to naval militias in various Military Maritime Districts in China as training boats, or harbor patrol boats. Like the aforementioned gunboats before it, the Swatow class, arriving for its new role(s) will likewise see increased conversions, some mothballing, and then eventually being scrapped.

Again, as with previous units (vessels), many of the surviving boats are being converted to naval auxiliaries, such as firing (gunnery) range support craft, target control boat (remote controlling of target drones), as well as being target drones themselves.

It is interesting to note, that despite the small amount of scientific instruments they carried, that most of the range support boats in the PLAN

People's Liberation Army Navy

The People's Liberation Army Navy is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army , the military of the People's Republic of China. Until the early 1990s, the navy performed a subordinate role to the PLA Land Forces. Since then, it has undergone rapid modernisation...

 also shoulder the responsibility of inshore surveying, regardless of their limitations. Originally, the majority of the hydrographic surveys had been conducted by civilian fishing vessels which had additional scientific equipment, naval and governmental crews onboard. However, since the Chinese economic reform

Chinese economic reform

The Chinese economic reform refers to the program of economic reforms called "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the People's Republic of China that were started in December 1978 by reformists within the Communist Party of China led by Deng Xiaoping.China had one of the world's largest...

, and the depletion of the fishery resources, the civilian fishing vessels must venture much further out into open ocean on extended voyages, thus were no longer available for coastal or inland water survey operations. Duties which had previously been assigned under the planned economy era in China prior to the economic reform. Consequently, the Chinese Navy must come up with their own solutions to meet these new demands, and the conversion of obsolete gunboats was one of the answers: although many of these vessels can no longer venture into the open sea, nor reach the speeds that they once could, they are still reliable enough to perform the duties of low speed inshore surveying tasks within the confines of river mouths and bays of Chinese coastlines.

Contrary to the commonly held, but erroneous belief that the Chinese Navy is following the tradition of maintaining weaponry on many of its auxiliaries (though there is certainly some degree of this), the retention was primarily for economic reasons: to avoid conversion costs, the original armament(s) were retained unless they were no longer serviceable. Consequently, many of the range support, surveying boats, and other auxiliary craft still maintain some of their former fighting capabilities.