It will be able to operate in strong waves and will be tasked with conducting law-enforcement patrols, safeguarding maritime interests, responding to emergencies, search and rescue, and extinguishing fires, designers said.

The vessel will carry a medium-duty helicopter that will improve its effectiveness in search-and-rescue operations, they said. It will be capable of accommodating 200 people saved from ships in distress and providing simple medical treatment to them.

Meanwhile, China Merchants Heavy Industry in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, is constructing what designers expect to be one of the world's most advanced rescue ships.

The ship, which has yet to be named, was designed by China State Shipbuilding Corp's Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute and is scheduled to be delivered around the end of 2022 to the Transport Ministry's Nanhai Rescue Bureau for search-and-rescue operations in the South China Sea.

With two powerful 7,000-kilowatt engines, the ship will have a full displacement of more than 16,000 tons, and will be 136.9 meters long and 26.7 meters wide, making it the heaviest and largest of its kind in China.

It will be capable of sailing nearly 30,000 km or operating 90 days in a single operation without needing to reach port or receive supplies, the institute said.