The Japan Coast Guard will install long-range machine guns on its larger patrol vessels in the wake of last month's shootout with an unidentified ship in the East China Sea, coast guard officials said Monday.
The officials said the 30mm automatically targeting machine guns are aimed at countering attacks like those last month by the crew of a suspected spy ship that fired two rockets at coast guard vessels.
Ten coast guard vessels, including the Inasa and the Amami, two of the three patrol ships involved in the shootout, are equipped with 20mm machine guns.