China's Navy "new" Hospital ship

Re: new PLAN Hospital ship

terrorhunter said:

China themselves have a 30000 ton hospital ship (ship 865) converted from a container ship and im sure their PR are fully aware of it. hence i still believe that when they say first they mean first dedicated and not converted hospital ship

Click to expand...

seems that 865 was only used temporarily for hospital duty or to test the concept before Anwei/peace ark was built. I haven't seen any new photos of it since like 2007, and it's not something that would be hard to find if it was still setup like that. Probably back in merchant duty!

bd popeye said:

True..aside from Nimitz class CVNs the Mercy & Comfort are the largest ships in the USN or USNS.

But the article stated capacity not displacement..

Here's the stats on the ship.

Click to expand...

Popeye, here's the patient capacity of the Mercy Class (T-AH) Class:

Patient Capacity:
Intensive care wards: 80 beds
Recovery wards: 20 beds
Intermediate care wards: 280 beds
Light care wards: 120 beds
Limited care wards: 500 beds
Total Patient Capacity: 1000 beds
Operating Rooms: 12

I would be surprised if the new Chinese vessel, which displaces only 23,000 tons, could match this.

Happy to see you are posting Jeff!

I've seen the Mercy in San Diego. It is very, very large ship. The USN keeps those ships in a reduced status until just a few weeks before they are deployed. They are manned by active duty personnel from all the services and many civilian medical personal.

I think a couple of years ago the USN was planning to retire both ships. But a decision by the USN was made to keep both ships in service for the near future for humanitarian missions..

According to wiki, the Peace Ark has 500 beds and 8 operating theaters. Since its displacement is only about 1/3 of the Comfort and Mercy, it is considered very efficient in term of beds over displacement.

SteelBird said:

According to wiki, the Peace Ark has 500 beds and 8 operating theaters. Since its displacement is only about 1/3 of the Comfort and Mercy, it is considered very efficient in term of beds over displacement.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

Again most likely because it was built with beds and operating theatres in mind instead of shoving as many beds as possible into a less-suitable ship structure.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I am curious regarding the assessment by some analysts that the Type 090 was developed as a response to 2004 embarrassment of lack of ships for disaster relief.

Wasn't there other hospital ships in service back then? Wikipedia lists several.

nigel_ht said:

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I am curious regarding the assessment by some analysts that the Type 090 was developed as a response to 2004 embarrassment of lack of ships for disaster relief.

Wasn't there other hospital ships in service back then? Wikipedia lists several.

Click to expand...

only the old "Qiongsha" class that are converted troopships. They don't seem to have too much medical capability - plus no helicopter pad, and they're old and probably don't have the most advanced medical gear. I don't think the PRC would want to send one of those sad little ships when the US had their huge Mercy/Comfort there. It would be embarassing more than no ship at all!

Who knows if the new AnWei was developed for that reason - probably, I'd say. But I haven't seen any articles saying why they got it specifically.

nigel_ht said:

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I am curious regarding the assessment by some analysts that the Type 090 was developed as a response to 2004 embarrassment of lack of ships for disaster relief.

Wasn't there other hospital ships in service back then? Wikipedia lists several.

Click to expand...

I'm not so sure that it was an embarassment.

Rather, I'm of the view that PRC saw how useful such ships are during a natural disaster and decided to build some for themselves. These ships are useful to showcase a country's soft power and can also be used domestically in the event of a natural disaster, particularly for a big country like PRC.

iconoclast said:

only the old "Qiongsha" class that are converted troopships. They don't seem to have too much medical capability - plus no helicopter pad, and they're old and probably don't have the most advanced medical gear. I don't think the PRC would want to send one of those sad little ships when the US had their huge Mercy/Comfort there. It would be embarassing more than no ship at all!

Who knows if the new AnWei was developed for that reason - probably, I'd say. But I haven't seen any articles saying why they got it specifically.

Click to expand...

I shouldn't have been so cryptic.

They've been playing with containerized medical facilities since at least the 90s. The Shichang is listed as a aviation training ship with a hospital module and 2 pads. But yeah, I wouldn't want to invite any comparison with the Mercys...

The 866 Haishan Dao probably wasn't completed yet.

I guess there is a tendency to underestimate Chinese planning by some analysts. I see a more long term strategy for HA/DR soft power projection and a mechanism for less alarming ways of learning blue water logistics and sustainment. If they started practicing and moving containerized power and hospital units ashore that's pretty much training for JLOTS or Sea Basing depending on how far out they park.

Is it true that this PLAN hospital ship visited Cuba last year ...