PLAN Fleet supply vessels

It would make sense yes. That is why I find the seemingly continued pause (against persistent rumours) so puzzling. But maybe they are confident they can put these AORs together far more quickly and crewing/training requirements are more trivial allowing quicker absorption into the active force when needed.

Given the present size and future fleet development of the PLAN, China will need more AORs and AOEs, especially when frequent long voyages into the "true blue" IndoPac are expected going forward.

A new 901A is said to have been quietly launched in Guangzhou, the new order had a total of three.

zszczhyx said:

A new 901A is said to have been quietly launched in Guangzhou, the new order had a total of three.

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any photos?

about time

That rumor floated around before but we have yet to see imagery to that effect. A 45,000 ton AOE can only hide for so long.

I've seen this photo attributes as hull 3 from the OP (see watermark) but I'm not sure if it's real (i.e. is it an old photo of hull 1 or 2 being passed off as hull 3)

Cause it doesn't look freshly launched to me; it looks like fitting out is already mostly done as well as painting etc)

Blitzo said:

I've seen this photo attributes as hull 3 from the OP (see watermark) but I'm not sure if it's real (i.e. is it an old photo of hull 1 or 2 being passed off as hull 3)

Cause it doesn't look freshly launched to me; it looks like fitting out is already mostly done as well as painting etc)

View attachment 129555

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Seems to be the case of the bolded phrase.

Did some reverse image search on Baidu, and I found the photo existing as far back as 2019.

para80 said:

That rumor floated around before but we have yet to see imagery to that effect. A 45,000 ton AOE can only hide for so long.

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agreed the construction could not be hidden let alone the launch

when the original units were under build we seen them