PLAN Anti-Piracy Deployments

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

How about sending the Type 071 LPD with two destroyers / frigates as escorts and a supply ship once the current fleet is done with their tour of duty?

The 4 LCACs and 4~6 helicopters carried by the LPD would be very effective against the small speedboats used by the pirates.

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

panzerkom said:

How about sending the Type 071 LPD with two destroyers / frigates as escorts and a supply ship once the current fleet is done with their tour of duty?

The 4 LCACs and 4~6 helicopters carried by the LPD would be very effective against the small speedboats used by the pirates.

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Will the 071 crew be trained enough to deploy? Crobato said they were assigned a fleet. And last I checked the PLAN has no LCACs. Do you mean the TYPE 724?? That's a very fast and appears to be very capable craft.

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

The 998, which is the pennant for the first 071, is currently stationed with the South Seas Fleet, which is the same fleet that is sending boats to Somalia.

China appears sensitive to international opinion, and the politicians may well veto the idea of sending 998 as it may be deemed provocative.

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

joshuatree said:

Since PLAN's position is to not actively seek and engage pirates, the pirates will either end up attacking a merchant ship being escorted by PLAN or they attack a merchant ship that eventually sends out a distress call which PLAN responds to. Scenario 1 seems improbable as pirates won't be that crazy (or maybe they are?). In scenario 2, since PLAN is responding, I see it more of sending ahead a helo with special forces? So an actual engagement between destroyer and pirates is highly unlikely?

I kinda wish PLAN could and would deploy some of those new FACs, seems to better match up to what the pirates are sporting.

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I still think that 169 and 171 are probably the best choices, PLAN sent an 052B overseas before and due to the fact that the ship is basically a Chinese version of a Sovremenny they should know the "in's" and "out's" of the ship already so it's one less headache to worry about, while 171 is a great choice because it can tests its PAR and other electronics using real world scenarios instead of exercises. An FFG 54A might have been nice too to see how it's systems react against real scenarios.
But the FACs are too small they'll need to constantly go back and forth between a port and also you can't station a platoon of spec ops on broard, i don't even think the ship will be balanced enough to shoot off of if it was chasing after pirates and spec ops troops need to shoot them too. How much food do you think those things can carry? Maybe at most 2-3 days before it has to go back and resupply, which will waste time and money, not to mention it would also be a major liability for the PLAN to anchor team in some unknown port. Not to mention the camouflages for those FACs aren't for the Somilia coast. I think also you can't forget those pirate have RPGs, if they RPGs whats stopping them from getting some Russian Kornets?
What do you think will happen if a couple of Kornets hit the FAC while it's stationed at some unknown port or investigating a "pirate" ship, not a pretty site

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

bd popeye said:

Will the 071 crew be trained enough to deploy? Crobato said they were assigned a fleet. And last I checked the PLAN has no LCACs. Do you mean the TYPE 724?? That's a very fast and appears to be very capable craft.

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The US Navy has had several confrontations with these pirates. To show what a PLAN confrontation is likely to look like, here is a picture of the USS Churchill, a Burke class destroyer, during such a confrontation off of Somalia in 2006.

In this instance, the US Navy captured this Indian flagged vessel which itself had been commandeered by the pirates. Photo credit Chief Petty Officer Kenneth Anderson, USN. Click on the photo for the story:

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

kw64 said:

I agree missiles are impractical to use against small boats, but I do see the possibility of using missiles against the pirate mothership (only if they decide to actively engage the pirate). Because the destroyers could have detected the pirate ship well beyond the firing range of the main gun, in that case fire some YJ-83 would be the most effective way. But then again the PLAN said they're not planning to actively seek to engage pirates.

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if the target is beyond the range of the main gun it means that China's ships are also beyond the range of the pirates' weapons (on the mothership). according to the rules of engagement they need not to bring it down. besides,firing missiles would antagonize the pirates.i know the governments are all anti-pirates and all that,but under the table who knows what kind of deals they are making...maybe one of China's "SOF" is actually specially trained for negotiation and pirate language like parle LOL

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

bd popeye said:

Will the 071 crew be trained enough to deploy? Crobato said they were assigned a fleet. And last I checked the PLAN has no LCACs. Do you mean the TYPE 724?? That's a very fast and appears to be very capable craft.

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I think it was commissioned in December of 2007, so it's been more than a year. And sorry about the confusion caused by terminology, by LCAC, I meant air-cushioned landing craft in general.

I think the Type 724 would be perfect for this type of mission too. It's fast and can perform both patrol missions and interdiction/force insertion missions. In a force insertion mission, it can insert a full squad of troops while a helicopter drop off another team at a different insertion point. Being air-cushioned, it would be a fairly stable platform if one wants to fire automatic weapons from it.

And when it comes to PLAN's air-cushioned boats, besides the Type 724, I believe they also have a newer and larger hovercraft.

SinoDefence link here:

And, picture here:

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

swimmerXC,

I'm kinda scratching my head here, you were responding to JoshuaTree in your previous post regarding FAC, right?

In the post that you quoted, I was actually talking about sending the Type 071 LPD, Kunlun Shan, pennant 998. I am advocating this since it's got a larger hangar and hence more helicopters, more room for special operations teams, and also carries hovercrafts that can be employed for patrol duties.

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

I think the PLAN have had their best choice. According to my understanding, Chinese government are very careful on each decision. So, there must have been careful consideration before sending what first, and who knows what will be sent later. As for FAC, I think you guys better not to bring it into discussion any more, because the possibility of sending such small boats is almost zero. Not only China, the other navies don't send small vessels to that area either.

Re: Somali pirates and Chinese navy

I don't think using hovercraft in this situation would be a good idea. Hovercraft are for amphibious operations, not sailing about on the open ocean. Unless China wanted to conduct operations against pirate-related land targets, I don't think that hovercraft would be wise.