QIDONG, JIANGSU, Mar. 15 (ChinaMil) -- China’s first 50,000-ton military-civilian dual-use semi-submersible vessel was brought into service in Qidong City, China's Jiangsu Province, on March 14.
The 50,000-ton ship has a total length of 227 meters, with a main deck area of 7,700 square meters. Its Semi-submersible draught is 27 meters. It has an average speed of 14 knots and a maximum cruise range of 18,000 nautical miles, and is perfect for navigation and operations in the open sea.
The semi-submersible vessel also has a large cargo platform area, equivalent to two standard football fields. In addition to its large steel structure and offshore drilling platform, the semi-submersible vessel also has other military functions, including carrying helicopters and fixing damaged war ships.
It is reported that the semi-submersible vessel can be used for berthing transition of a big ship over 10,000 tons, maritime military relay support for ship-borne helicopters, rush-repair and evacuation of damaged warships and so on.
Huang Hao, a deputy director of the PLA Wuxi Joint Logistic Support Center, said that the design and manufacture of this semi-submersible vessel took two years and three months.
It is the largest civilian ship that meets defense requirements. This multi-functional semi-submersible vessel is almost the same size as an aircraft carrier, Huang added.
China just launched its 98,000t DWT Mobile Landing Platform (MLP).
COSCOL’s 98,000t DWT newbuilding semi-submersible vessel “Guang Hua Kou”
was successfully launched on April 28th at Guangzhou Shipyard
International (GSI). The “Guang Hua Kou” will be one of the largest
vessels of its type when delivered end of this year.
Expert: Chinese Navy needs bigger semi-submersible ships for open sea operations
BEIJING, March 28 (ChinaMil) –
China needs semi-submersible ships with greater tonnage in the future
as the country constantly updates its naval equipment, according to Cao
Weidong, a military expert, in an interview with CCTV’s Asia Today.
The
USNS Montford Point, the Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) of the United
States, acted as a mobile offshore port and performed all the material
transfer tasks at sea during the Exercise Ssang Yong 16 concluded on
March 18, a biennial military exercise focused on strengthening the
amphibious landing capabilities of the U.S. and its allies.
Cao
Weidong said in the interview that China has similar equipment known as
semi-submersible ship, but its tonnage is much smaller than that of the
USNS Montford Point.
Cao
said that as China constantly updates its naval equipment,
semi-submersible ships with greater tonnage are needed in the future.
The
Exercise Ssang Yong 16 was held from March 7 to 18, 2016. Yonhap News
Agency reported that the U.S. sent more than 9,200 marines and 3,000
sailors in the exercise while the ROK sent more than 5,000 marines and
sailors. In addition, Australia and New Zealand also sent army soldiers
to the exercise.
In the
exercise, the U.S. first dispatched a large cargo ship loaded with
supplies and logistics equipment to the designated sea area, and then
the USNS Montford Point approached the cargo ship and connected to the
cargo ship with ropes.
Part
of the deck of the USNS Montford Point can be wrapped into the water and
therefore large air-cushioned landing craft can directly reach the deck
of the ship. Then supplies were lifted from the cargo ship to
air-cushioned landing craft and finally transported ashore.
Throughout
the entire process, it can be concluded that with the help of the USNS
Montford Point, the U.S. military will no longer need ports when
transporting heavy equipment and logistics materials from the sea to the
front as the whole transportation work can be completed at sea. That
is, the MLP acts as a mobile offshore port or base at sea.
The
U.S. military officials said that the U.S. military logistics support
can only last 15 days after the landing of its Marines in the past but
now the mobile port provides logistics support for the troops on land at
any time.
U.S.
media disclosed that the U.S. had been brewing the strategic vision of
sea bases at least for one decade, but didn’t find the right equipment.
The construction of the USNS Montford Point started in 2012 and the ship
was delivered to the U.S. military in 2013.
Its
full load displacement is 78,000 tons and the range exceeds 9,000 sea
miles. The U.S. Navy is scheduled to purchase at least two such ships.
Logistics
and equipment support are essential for a force that conducts
operations at open sea. It is undoubtedly a piece of good news if this
supply does not rely on ports.
In
fact, the Chinese Navy has similar equipment. The semi-submersible ship
Donghaidao officially joined the South China Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy
on July 10, 2015. This is China’s first semi-submersible ship.
According
to the website of the Chinese Navy, Donghaidao is a new
semi-submersible ship developed and manufactured independently by China.
The ship is 175.5 meters in length and 32.4 meters in width. Its full
load displacement exceeds 20,000 tons.
The
ship looks similar to the USNS Montford Point and the U.S. has paid
great attention to Donghaidao. The U.S. Navy Institute published an
article on the official website, saying the Donghaidao ship will
significantly improve the amphibious combat capability of the Chinese
Navy.
Cao
Weidong said that China has its own semi-submersible ship and it looks
similar to the USNS Montford Point because they have to perform similar
task, the logistics support.
He
said that China’s semi-submersible ship can transport logistical
supplies and conduct tasks such as maintenance for combat ships and
submarines.
Though
China’s semi-submersible ship is essentially a logistical support base,
its usage is different compared with that of the United States.
First,
China will not send its semi-submersible ship to territories of other
countries. Instead, China’s semi-submersible ship is for the maintenance
and logistics support for its own ships during open sea tasks.
Second,
the tonnage of China’s semi-submersible ship is much smaller than the
USNS Montford Point, in accordance with China’s naval defense needs and
the overall capacity.
Cao
concluded that China needs semi-submersible ships with greater tonnage
in the future as the country constantly updates its naval equipment.
The author is Huang
Zijuan, reporter from the People’s Daily Online. The opinions expressed
here are those of the writer and don't represent views of the China
Military Online website.
Photos of the day: On board PLAN's Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) 868
Since PLAN's Yuzhao class LPD is not large enough to house Zubr LCAC,
it makes sense for the PLAN to utilize the MLP to launch those "
European bison".
Coming soon, a Chinese Mobile Landing Platform (MLP).
This Chinese Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) H1138 is smaller than its USN
counterpart; weighting in about 50,000 tons, USNS Montford Point in
comparison weighting in about 34,500 tons. This small size could
suggest a limited role to only supporting float-on/float-off amphibious
operations and not for long range force deployment and resupply. USN’s
MLP, on the other hand, is designed with those mission profiles in
mind: it’s MLP1 and MLP2 provision 25,000 square feet of vehicle and
equipment stowage space and 380,000 gallons of fuel storage in addition
to the support of 3 LCAC lanes.
Frankly speaking, until the PLAN processes additional LCACs, it is difficult to see the need for a bigger MLP.
I think I need a bigger MLP
MLP concept from the USN.
