lcloo
Captain
HQ-26 is highly classified. You can get related news on google search, but they are not reliable.
PLA Navy news, pics and videos
- Thread starter Jeff Head
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The very rarely photographed new small landing craft. The magazine illustration implies that it can ferry two Type-15 light tanks, but this is likely only speculation.
So this may actually be fairly major.
The illustration is different from the real thing, where the real thing has:
-square bow
-wider ramp
-looks like it has a 8-9m beam rather than 11m beam, based on the pic where it is alongside the 072
... But it does seem like it may have a trimaran hull of some kind (check the bow/water in pic 1) and there may be pump jets (looking at the LCU's aft in pic 2).
And by the size of this, it doesn't look much smaller than LCU Mk10 or even LCU 1700.
Meaning it may very well be able to carry an MBT or two light tanks...
If they can indeed fit two of these LCUs alongside each other in the well deck of 071/075 (if the beam is small enough, which 8-9m is probably sufficient for), and given it looks shorter than the PLANs LCAC, they could potentially fit eight of these LCUs in the well deck of an 071.
And if they are indeed slightly higher speed than normal LCUs (if they use pump jet and/or a trimaran hull), this could prove to be a very useful loadout for delivering a larger number of heavier AFVs at once, to compatible beaches of course.
They'd lack the ability to deliver in less receptive terrain in the way LCACs can do, but they could delivery twice the number of vehicles at once with the same well deck footprint, without being too slow.
Of course, this is all pending on the characteristics of this new LCU itself, but many years ago I believed a high speed, well deck compatible LCU should be considered by the PLAN for the purpose of delivering more AFVs to accessible beaches, for missions where numbers in a wave matter more than where they are landed.
Oh wow, 8 years ago actually....
Pleasantly surprised this expectation actually seems to be manifesting.
Now, i wonder if the Y-20B multirole baseline tanker/transport will also emerge...
071 LPD thread
When it comes to how many LPD China will build I think people are missing the point This whole 1 out of 3 available at any time is not always true just earlier this year when MH-370 was missing China had all 3 x LPD deployed along with 3 out of the 4 tankers you don't know what a country will...
www.sinodefenceforum.com
seems to be quite useful for sustainment and reinforcement operations after the beachhead is taken. instead of ferrying troops and vehicles in huge ships and make for easy targets break them up into these smaller vessels. although I do not think it is yet a good idea to use these for a first wave attack because it will be immensely difficult to organize.
On the contrary, I actually think it is flipped.
During the initial amphibious assault, doing an opposed landing, I think it is more important to disperse one's landed forces so have as many landing craft and amphibious assault vehicles doing the landing to the beach as possible, so as to make it more difficult to defend. Instead of just hitting a few large amphibious assault ships, they would have many dozens or hundreds of LCUs, LCTs, AAVs, to complicate their defenses as well as a smaller number of larger LSTs, LPDs and LHDs.
OTOH once a beachhead is secured, using larger sized ships for transport would be useful as they can carry more cargo closer to the beach more efficiently, where dispersion and swarming is less important.
So here are some measurements. 072 should be around 16.3 m wide at its widest.
This new LCU should therefore be around 7.1 m wide. (its rear ramp would then be little under 5.1 m wide)
Using previous imagery, the width of the rear ramp on the 071 is some 19.3 m.
The deck is narrower than the door, by around half a meter on each side.
So the overall width of the well deck is likely around 18 m.
Conclusion: this LCU is sufficiently small to fit two, side by side. While leaving little over 1 m of clearance between the two craft and between the well deck walls.
The new LCU is therefore visibly smaller than the US LCU classes.
US is currently using the 1466, the 1610 and the 1627 classes. Last two are quite similar and seem to be widely used within USN. The 1466 is older and truth be told I haven't seen it a lot in US exercise footage. Perhaps it's on its way out of service?
US landing ships use three main categories. The LPD and LDH - which have a 81 by 15.2 m decks. And the LSD ships which have 134 by 15.2 meter well decks.
The 1610 and 1627 classes are 41 m long and have a beam of 9.1 m. Their light displacement is 175-200 tons. Their full displacement is 360 to 390 tons. (curiously, the bigger craft is credited with far less cargo capacity. Just 127 tonnes compared to 183 tonnes for the smaller of the two. That may be an error.)
All US craft are credited with 1200 nmi range (2200 km).
While the numbers above wouldn't suggest it, the US LPD/LDH can hold two LCAC, due to some overhang of the ramp over the edge of the well deck.
But clearly, they're far too wide to be parked two in a row. (18.2 m combined width of two LCUs, compared to 15.2 m wide well deck)
So, the new Chinese LCU is purposefully designed so it compromises on capability, when using 1 on 1 comparison with the US LCU. But that can only mean it was done so other things could be taken advantage of. Indeed, if Chinese navy isn't planning to park 2 of those LCUs side by side in their large landing ships - then they're not utilizing their full design potential.
Given that the length of the 071 well deck is closer to the USD LSD ships, it's plausible each 071 could carry 6 or even up to 8 of such LCUs.
Of course, each individual LCU, being small, can carry less stuff. For sure it's not been designed to cross 2200 km. But probably far, far less. Possibly even closer to 500 km rather than 1000 km.
It's probably little under the capacity of the British Mk.9 LCU. Which is 30 m long, 7.7m wide, has 1100 km range and full displacement of 240 tons.
Still, the chinese LCU, even if around 200 ton displacement, is likely to be sized to carry one MBT, or four 15-ton vehicles, or a company sized infantry unit without vehicles.
This new LCU should therefore be around 7.1 m wide. (its rear ramp would then be little under 5.1 m wide)
Using previous imagery, the width of the rear ramp on the 071 is some 19.3 m.
The deck is narrower than the door, by around half a meter on each side.
So the overall width of the well deck is likely around 18 m.
Conclusion: this LCU is sufficiently small to fit two, side by side. While leaving little over 1 m of clearance between the two craft and between the well deck walls.
The new LCU is therefore visibly smaller than the US LCU classes.
US is currently using the 1466, the 1610 and the 1627 classes. Last two are quite similar and seem to be widely used within USN. The 1466 is older and truth be told I haven't seen it a lot in US exercise footage. Perhaps it's on its way out of service?
US landing ships use three main categories. The LPD and LDH - which have a 81 by 15.2 m decks. And the LSD ships which have 134 by 15.2 meter well decks.
The 1610 and 1627 classes are 41 m long and have a beam of 9.1 m. Their light displacement is 175-200 tons. Their full displacement is 360 to 390 tons. (curiously, the bigger craft is credited with far less cargo capacity. Just 127 tonnes compared to 183 tonnes for the smaller of the two. That may be an error.)
All US craft are credited with 1200 nmi range (2200 km).
While the numbers above wouldn't suggest it, the US LPD/LDH can hold two LCAC, due to some overhang of the ramp over the edge of the well deck.
But clearly, they're far too wide to be parked two in a row. (18.2 m combined width of two LCUs, compared to 15.2 m wide well deck)
So, the new Chinese LCU is purposefully designed so it compromises on capability, when using 1 on 1 comparison with the US LCU. But that can only mean it was done so other things could be taken advantage of. Indeed, if Chinese navy isn't planning to park 2 of those LCUs side by side in their large landing ships - then they're not utilizing their full design potential.
Given that the length of the 071 well deck is closer to the USD LSD ships, it's plausible each 071 could carry 6 or even up to 8 of such LCUs.
Of course, each individual LCU, being small, can carry less stuff. For sure it's not been designed to cross 2200 km. But probably far, far less. Possibly even closer to 500 km rather than 1000 km.
It's probably little under the capacity of the British Mk.9 LCU. Which is 30 m long, 7.7m wide, has 1100 km range and full displacement of 240 tons.
Still, the chinese LCU, even if around 200 ton displacement, is likely to be sized to carry one MBT, or four 15-ton vehicles, or a company sized infantry unit without vehicles.
I would like to edit my previous post. After using some actual images of 071 and its well deck - sizing them up to ship's external dimensions - I'd say the width of the deck well is some 15 meters wide, rather than 18 m that I stated earlier.
While technically that's still more than width of two LCus - the leftover clearance is very, very small.
Then again - if the LCU is not made to be used in pairs width wise - why make it so small? why not utilize more of the well deck's width?
While technically that's still more than width of two LCus - the leftover clearance is very, very small.
Then again - if the LCU is not made to be used in pairs width wise - why make it so small? why not utilize more of the well deck's width?
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Wouldn't it be easier just to find what the type 726 LCAC's beam is, and use that as the number for the well deck width of 071/075?
Of course, that number may or may not be reliable, even if any are available...
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The way in which it could be fit into the welldeck relative to the LCAC is somewhat reminiscent of the EDA-S which is basically an LCU that France has developed, and intended to fit two in the space of one EDA-R
And the design of Juan Carlos/Canberra are designed to carry two 110t LCM-1Es in a row as well.
In fact I would say the LCM-1Es and EDA-S appear to be the closest peers to this new PLA LCU
Both of those are able to carry a fully loaded MBT, which seems reasonable for this new PLA LCU too.
.... It also seems very similar to the US MSV-L being pursued -- the MSV-L and EDA-S, similar to the new PLA LCU, uses a non-traditional hullform
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