zero evidence about next 076 unit or how many they are planning to build.. without testing and evaluation i don't think so PLAN will order further ships.
075 make sense as China's attack helicopter fleet growing and growing.
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075 LHD thread
- Thread starter nosh
- Start date
075 make sense as China's attack helicopter fleet growing and growing.
Frankly, until the Taiwan situation is resolved, China needs LHDs more than it needs carriers. In fact, China doesn't need carriers at all because it doesn't fight expeditionary wars, and land based aircraft can hit pretty much all the targets it really wants to anyways. Carriers are a luxury for the time being, and China is in the position of having the resources to do both so it's much more of a long term investment.
The other side of it is that carriers are still a very new thing for China so it makes sense to figure out what works and why it works before going all in on any particular design. In other words, China is doing what the US should have been doing with the Ford-class.
I think that the 076 is largely an experimental design for figuring out whether the PLAN should go with older 075-style helicopter carriers, with new-style drone carriers, or with light carriers. There are no predecessors for this paradigm so China can't crib from someone else's homework.
Per the original poster on Bilibili, this one is alleged to be at Huangpu-Wenchong Shipyard, though I haven't manage to spot the ship on Copernicus so far (though this could also be due to poor weather and poor photograph quality).
But if the claim is accurate, then this would be the first 075 LHD built by Huangpu-Wenchong.
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Well, as of yet, we haven't manage to visually identify and confirm the presence of a new 075 LHD under construction at Huangpu-Wenchong.
Still, that aside - I wouldn't necessarily say that Hudong-Zhonghua is actually "cooking" anything. If this news is true, then this is more of a major positive development in China's military shipbuilding, where not only one, but two separate shipyards are capable of building and servicing LHD-type warships (and potentially LPD-type warships, if such need arises in the future). This would relieve pressure on Hudong-Zhonghua, while ensuring that both shipyards still have steady income streams from continuous commercial shipbuilding activities.
(Speaking of Hudong-Zhonghua: As of today, there is one LNG carrier under construction in the larger drydock, with the hull assembly of an unidentified ship ongoing in the smaller drydock.)
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How big is the smaller Hudong drydock? My understanding is that the bigger one is large enough to build a carrier in it. How many and the lengths of the largest drydocks in the main chinese shipyards is a subject i'm greatly interested in (i was looking specifically for those big enough to accomodate a carrier). Is there a source somewhere compiling this info? I did have a look on the www and from memory it seems there is at least two each at Jiangnan and Dalian, at least one at Dalian Dagushan, and at least one at Hudong. Plus iirc there is a 650 meters one building at Hudong, but i don't think it's ready yet. Also, if i'm not mistaken Hudong and Jiangnan fused together recently.
The smaller drydock at Hudong-Zhonghua measures ~340 meters long and ~48 meters wide.
The number is 50+, per the Office of Naval Intelligence of the United States Navy.
However, it MUST be noted that the phrase "physically accommodate" definitely should not be taken as being equivalent to the aforementioned drydocks being capable of building, servicing and repairing aircraft carriers (of which only a few of them do).
Says who?
Yes, Hudong-Zhonghua did move its shipyard to Changxing Island, and is located directly east of Jiangnan.
However, this is not the same as Hudong-Zhonghua and Jiangnan being "fused together" (of which the more proper term would be "merger"). Both Jiangnan and Hudong-Zhonghua remained as distinct subsidiaries of the CSSC.