Normally, PLAN will only open the 01 deck for visit. Visitor couldn't enter other lower deck for visit. Also, I remember I have seen double water-tighted doors in a 054a…
052C/052D Class Destroyers
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
This sounds a lot more credible than what the guy on Twitter is saying.
kwaigonegin
Colonel
Whether PLAN is serious about firefighting can be easily confirmed by one thing as far as I'm concern.
Do they teach and practice firefighting even as far back as bootcamp? Is so good, if not then Xavier is right. PLAN appears to not take firefighting seriously then which would be a cardinal sin in a modern navy!
Any Navy which puts firefighting in the back burner no pun intended can't be a world class navy.
Firefighting is one of the most important component of seamanship.
Every recruit in USN RTC has over 40 hours of firefighting training just in bootcamp alone.
Do they teach and practice firefighting even as far back as bootcamp? Is so good, if not then Xavier is right. PLAN appears to not take firefighting seriously then which would be a cardinal sin in a modern navy!
Any Navy which puts firefighting in the back burner no pun intended can't be a world class navy.
Firefighting is one of the most important component of seamanship.
Every recruit in USN RTC has over 40 hours of firefighting training just in bootcamp alone.
A ship is divided into watertight compartments by bulkheads. All doors (and any other opening) in these bulkheads should be watertight.
Talking to someone who knows a bit more about this stuff, there are a few observations.
In terms of watertight doors and watertight bulkheads, they wouldn't be present on the levels in which the standard PLAN ship tour would go (i.e. through the superstructure, at that level), and instead are present at the waterline level and above, but not as high as the main structure level. If that level is at risk of flooding then your ship is probably done anyway.
I'm not sure if US or other ships have watertight doors at the super structure level as well, or if Xavier has had more liberal tours of other non-PLAN ships (likely, given his past write ups).
The corridor in which the trip goes through is probably one of the side main damage control corridors that PLAN ships have (at least one on each side), designed to be relatively smooth and unobtrusive. Damage control stations are interspersed along the corridors inside, to allow teams to get to where they need to be. And of course we've also seen enough pictures and videos of fire extinguishers being present in the ship's various locations. I'm not sure if they deliberately don't have any fire extinguishers along the DC corridors because of the assumption that DC stations are so close on hand, or if they just removed them for the tour. Anecdotally I remember years ago when I was on an 054A for a tour, it took a similar route that was only on the side corridor which would have been the DC corridor, and it didn’t go deeper inside the ship in any direction.
That isn't to say there aren't likely some differences in DC philosophy between PLAN ships and that of other navies, but if my guess is right, this is a very flawed sample to make the conclusion of "they don't have watertight doors/bulkheads, or fire fighting/DC equipment".
Even the torpedo and RHIB davit aspect was a little confusing to me, because while there may be no door separating them, if the concern is over secondary explosions or fire spreading due to damage, the kind of damage you'd be suffering is likely to be of greater concern. Not to mention on other ships of the world where the torpedo launchers are exposed, right in front of the RHIB (exposed as well) and also adjacent to the VLS.
In terms of watertight doors and watertight bulkheads, they wouldn't be present on the levels in which the standard PLAN ship tour would go (i.e. through the superstructure, at that level), and instead are present at the waterline level and above, but not as high as the main structure level. If that level is at risk of flooding then your ship is probably done anyway.
I'm not sure if US or other ships have watertight doors at the super structure level as well, or if Xavier has had more liberal tours of other non-PLAN ships (likely, given his past write ups).
The corridor in which the trip goes through is probably one of the side main damage control corridors that PLAN ships have (at least one on each side), designed to be relatively smooth and unobtrusive. Damage control stations are interspersed along the corridors inside, to allow teams to get to where they need to be. And of course we've also seen enough pictures and videos of fire extinguishers being present in the ship's various locations. I'm not sure if they deliberately don't have any fire extinguishers along the DC corridors because of the assumption that DC stations are so close on hand, or if they just removed them for the tour. Anecdotally I remember years ago when I was on an 054A for a tour, it took a similar route that was only on the side corridor which would have been the DC corridor, and it didn’t go deeper inside the ship in any direction.
That isn't to say there aren't likely some differences in DC philosophy between PLAN ships and that of other navies, but if my guess is right, this is a very flawed sample to make the conclusion of "they don't have watertight doors/bulkheads, or fire fighting/DC equipment".
Even the torpedo and RHIB davit aspect was a little confusing to me, because while there may be no door separating them, if the concern is over secondary explosions or fire spreading due to damage, the kind of damage you'd be suffering is likely to be of greater concern. Not to mention on other ships of the world where the torpedo launchers are exposed, right in front of the RHIB (exposed as well) and also adjacent to the VLS.
Last edited:
I found these Chinese papers "The application and development of watertight door on foreign naval warships" and "Discussion on the Selection of Marine Watertight Door" which is from Naval Armament Department of PLA.
Last edited:
