PLAN commission of the day: 2 Type 903A Replenishment Tankers

In a bit over 2 years, China commissioned 8 Type093  Replenishment Tankers.  The lead boat "Qiandaohu" was commissioned on April 30th, 2014.

ZHANJIANG, July 15 (ChinaMil) -- The South China Sea Fleet of the Chinese PLA Navy held on July 15 a commissioning ceremony for two new comprehensive supply ships Honghu (hull number 963) and Luomahu (hull number 964) at a naval port in Zhanjiang, south China’s Guangdong Province.

Shen Jinlong, commander of the South China Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy, presented the navy ensigns and naming certificates for the new ships.

The comprehensive supply ships Honghu (hull number 963) and Luomahu (hull number 964) belong to the same class of supply ships with a full displacement of over 20, 000 tons and are new type of open-sea comprehensive supply ships developed and built by China independently.

The two newly commissioned supply ships employ more advanced replenishment-at-sea technologies and can provide alongside, astern and vertical replenishment-at-sea for several different types of ships simultaneously.
Besides stronger open-sea comprehensive supply capability, the two ships also have certain anti-surface and anti-air defense combat capabilities.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

South Sea Fleet commissions three support ships in a single day.

BEIJING, Dec. 28 (ChinaMil) -- The South China Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy has embraced three new vessels. A ceremony marking the beginning of military service of the three vessels, the supply ship Luguhu, the electronic reconnaissance ship Neptune and the pelagic survey vessel Qian Xuesen was held at a naval port in the South China Sea on Saturday.

These three vessels are all independently designed and built by China.

The biggest differences between the Type 904B supply ship Luguhu (Hull No. 962) and its predecessor Type 904A supply ship Fuxianhu are that, instead of the portal frame type platform, which is specific to the comprehensive supply ship, on the supply ship Luguhu, there are two davits mounted on each side in the middle section of the ship and a hangar which enhances the vertical replenishment capacity.

The ship is designed to provide material supply for the troops stationed in the Nansha islands, and undertake such tasks as providing supply for a ship formation and maritime medical aid at a certain degree.

The Type 815G electronic reconnaissance ship Neptune (Hull No. 852) is able to conduct continuous all-weather reconnaissance of various targets within a certain range.

The Qian Xuesen (Hull No. 873) is the third ship of the Type 636A pelagic survey vessel family. It mainly conducts survey of oceans and reefs, marine meteorology observation and layout of hydrometeorological buoys to provide basic data to guarantee navigation safety and carry out marine scientific research.

The sound attenuation is the most remarkable performance of the survey vessel, which is even more excellent than that of the Russian Kilo-class submarines known as the “ocean black hole” in the world.

Supply ship Luguhu

  Electronic reconnaissance ship Neptune.

  Type 636A pelagic survey vessel Qian Xuesen

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Photos of the day: PLAN's three new fleet replenishment ships got their pennant numbers

They are 960, 961 and 962

Deploying naval force to South China Sea.

No, not PRC this time.  ROC is stepping up the game with her newly elected president leading the charge.


 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/world/asia/south-china-sea-taiwan.html

“The mission of this voyage is to display Taiwan people’s resolve in defending the national interest,” Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, said in a speech before the departure of the ship, a La Fayette-class frigate. The patrol had already been scheduled, but the ship’s departure was moved up a day after the tribunal’s announcement.

Ms. Tsai said the decision on Tuesday by the tribunal, which was established by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, had “gravely harmed” Taiwan’s rights in the South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

On paper, Taiwan and China make the same claims to the South China Sea. The so-called nine-dash line that Beijing uses to claim most of the sea is based on a map issued in the late 1940s by China’s then-Nationalist government, which fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists. Since then, Beijing and the government in Taiwan — the Republic of China, as it is formally known — have based their claims on the line, which the tribunal concluded had no basis in law.

La Fayette-class frigate

PLAN decommission of the day: Two Type 062 Shanghai class gun boats.

Pennant numbers 1201 and 1202 of East Sea Fleet

Two UN peacekeepers from China killed in South Sudan

 

JUBA, July 11 (ChinaMil) -- Two UN peacekeepers from China, namely Li Lei and Yang Shupeng, were killed and five others were injured on July 10 when their armored vehicle was hit by a shell during a mission in Juba, capital of South Sudan, according to China's Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Monday.

The incident happened at 18:39, July 10, local time, when South Sudanese government and anti-government forces continued to exchange fire in Juba.

The armored vehicle of the Chinese peacekeeping infantry battalion was performing the guard tasks in a refugee camp at the headquarters of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), when it was suddenly attacked by a shell.

Two were severely injured and three suffered minor injuries during the attack, the Information Office of the MND said.

The Chinese military is deeply astonished and strongly condemns the attack, said the Information Office of the MND in a statement, expressing deep condolences to the victims and their families.

After the occurrence of the incident, the Chinese military immediately initiated an emergency-response mechanism, and the Chinese peacekeeping detachment to the country has done its best to save the wounded and further strengthened its safety and guard measures to ensure security.

RIP

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Photos of the day: First Chinese peacekeeping infantrymen leave for South Sudan, fully loaded.

24 infantrymen of the advance detachment of the first peacekeeping infantry battalion of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) left for South Sudan from Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport and Yantai Laishan International Airport respectively on January 8, 2015. The following 156 members of the advance detachment will arrive in the mission area in South Sudan by batches. The peacekeeping infantry battalion will perform such peacekeeping missions as protecting local citizens as well as personnel and facilities of the United Nations (UN) and carrying out humanitarian rescue operations entrusted by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Youtube of the day: The much-talked about South China Sea combat drill

Most noteworthy is the YJ-12 Supersonic Anti-Ship Missile being launched by a H-6 bomber.   The YJ-12 has a reported range of 400KM and a top speed of March 4.

The Chinese navy conducted combat drills near its southern island province of Hainan and the Paracel islands in the South China Sea, the ministry of defence said on July 9.

The drills come ahead of a July 12 ruling by the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration on a case brought by the Philippines disputing several of China‘s territory claims in the South China Sea.
Ships from China‘s northern, eastern and southern fleets participated in July 8 drills, which focused on air control, surface operations and anti-submarine warfare, among other training exercises, the ministry said in a website statement.

China claims nearly all the South China Sea, but its claims overlap in part with those of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

China has repeatedly said it does not consider any decision reached by the arbitration court to be legally binding.
“China adheres to the position of settling disputes through negotiation and consultation with states directly concerned,” state news agency Xinhua said in a commentary on July 9.
“This has always been China‘s policy, and it will never change.”
(Reuters)

Professional China-Watcher Article Of The Day: China’s Blueprint for Sea Power

The entire article can be found here

China’s Blueprint for Sea Power
Publication: China Brief Volume: 16 Issue: 11
July 6, 2016 01:22 PM Age: 22 hrs
By: Andrew S. Erickson

Powered by the world’s second largest economy and defense budget, China has implemented a consistent, incremental strategy of upholding its outstanding territorial and maritime claims in the Near Seas (Yellow, East, and South China Seas), while more gradually developing an outer layer of less-intensive capabilities to further its interests and influence farther afield. In March, China further enshrined its turn toward maritime power in the 13th Five-Year Plan.

Although China is often frustratingly opaque to outside analysts with respect to specific military hardware capabilities, the military strategy that informs the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) organization and use of its forces is often far more transparent in its broader objectives and dimensions. Demonstrably authoritative PLA texts that discuss these topics, such as the Academy of Military Science’s (AMS) multiple versions of Science of Military Strategy (战略学, or SMS), are increasingly joined by official Defense White Papers (DWP) as well as a wide range of other publications and data. [1] Considering this material together offers a fairly clear picture of where China stands militarily and its intended course for the future.

Maritime security development is at the geographic and operational forefront of Chinese military development. The aforementioned sources accurately portray the PLA Navy (PLAN) as undergoing a strategic sea change in recent years. Similarly transforming to support comprehensive efforts at sea are China’s maritime law enforcement (MLE) forces and its maritime militia. The PLAN, soon to be the world’s second largest blue water navy, retains a lead role in the Near Seas. The world’s largest blue water coast guard and largest maritime militia share important responsibilities—typically in coordination with the PLAN. Beijing is pursuing a clear hierarchy of priorities whose importance and realization diminishes sharply with their distance from mainland Chinese territorial and maritime claims, while engaging in a comprehensive modernization and outward geographic radiation of its forces. This is part of a layered pattern dating to the earliest days of the Party and its Army, even before it established the People’s Republic in 1949. Having consolidated all its more-pressing inner geographic rings of interests in ensuing decades, Beijing can finally focus on furthering its unresolved claims in the Near Seas, and promoting its broader interests beyond them.

China’s Hierarchy of Security Priorities

1. Party Leadership

2. Party-State Administration

3. Governance of Core Han Homeland

4. Stability in Ethno-Religious Minority Borderlands

5. Integrity of Land Borders

6. Upholding and Furthering Near Seas Claims

7. Addressing Far Seas Interests