PLA Landing Barge Photos Of The Day: East Engineering 403

At last, a clear image of the landing barge bearing the pennant 'East Engineering 403.' According to PLAN naming conventions, 'East' clearly denotes she as organic to the East Sea Fleet, while 'Engineering' signifies the vessel's role as a support unit within the fleet.   Note the Bow thruster marking next to 'East Engineering 403.'

Should all "other roles" fall through, the PLAN might as well turn those barges into a sightseeing destination.   People will pay good RMB to see them.

 

unday, June 15, 2025

Newly surfaced PLA landing barges / mulberry harbour, Jun 16th

 There are several good YouTube videos on the PLA landing barges out there, if you need a detailed analysis, you can look them up.    Here are the latest clear photos by 鼎盛大彪 of those guys

Saturday, January 11, 2025

CG of the day: Specialized Landing Barges

What would happen to the PLAN's amphibious warfare capabilities if it had access to a fleet of barges capable of accommodating civilian Ro-Ro?    That is currently a trending issue on Chinese military blogs.

To illiterate this concept, here's some CG by 大包CG (source link)

Saturday, October 05, 2024

PLA "Mulberry Harbour"

So this is what a Mulberry, temporary portable harbour (link) looks like.  Of course, having a civilian Ro-Ro STUFT-ed (Ships Taken Up From Trade) in the background is really icing on the cake.    The question of why the PLA would require such a temporary harbor, say 110 kilometers east of Fujian, your guess is as good as mine.

Monday, February 12, 2018

STUFT (Ships Taken Up From Trade) of the day: Zhang DaLong

SinoTrans CSC "Zhang DaLong" RORO weighting in 20,000 tons, just demonstrated it can deliver 2 fully armed PLA Army battalion battle-groups - including Type99A MBT - at open sea.  Is there any more questions regarding the existence of a Chinese STUFT program?  

Saturday, September 16, 2017

PLA's STUFT (Ships Taken Up From Trade) capacity in a North Korean crisis

While it is fashionable to cite the PLNA having the "capable of sea-lifting only one infantry division" (TM), but without the PLAN, the PLA can draw upon its own organic amphibious warfare assets, which is enormous in its own right.  Furthermore,  the CMC also has a long tradition of STUFT-ing civil assets in a crisis.

When-and-if the PLA is able to secure a beachhead near the plain of Pyonyang, undoubtedly they will use captured ports to send supply and reinforcement from Dailian, Yantai and Shanghai.   Distance between Pyongyang and Dalian 224 miles across the Yellow Sea. 

Here is a look at China's STUFT (Ships Taken Up From Trade) capacity as of 2012.

-  Bohai Ferry Fleet. 11x Ropax liners with 1400-1600 passengers + 200+ vehicle spaces each.  That is 22,000 vehicles and 28,000 troops. 

 - State owned CSC-sinotrans has 27 Ro-ROs 

 http://www.sinotrans-csc.com/art/2016/9/30/art_12507_221252.html
Jinling Shipyard has to date delivered 27 RORO ships of various types. It was awarded the project for the 16,000-ton RORO ships, further consolidating its advantageous position in the global RORO ship building sector, and indicating the acknowledgment by the ship-owner of the Jinling RORO brand for its fully guaranteed timely ship delivery. At present, Jinling Shipyard is has received the contracts for and is in the process of building 10 RORO ships, which fall into the four series, i.e., 6700-vehicle, 3800-vechile, 12,00-ton and 16,000-ton ships, with the ship-owners being internationally renowned big companies. 

 - Five Ocean going rail ferries.


In short,  if the CMC is committed to STUFT its entire Ro-Ro fleet, it could drop 150,000 troops together with their supply and vehicles in a single lift.