China's New Amphibious Assault Ship: A Big Waste of Time?
Dave Majumdar
Security, Asia
Or South China Sea showstopper?
China is set to complete its first large-deck amphibious assault ship—the Type 075—by 2020. The vessel, which is currently under construction at the Hudong Zhonghua shipyards in Shanghai, is roughly the same size as one of the U.S. Navy’s Wasp-class (LHD-1) amphibious assault ships.
“Construction of the Type 075 ships will take two more years,” a Chinese military source told the South China Morning Post. “The first vessel may be launched as early as 2019 and put into full service in 2020.”
It is not clear how many Type 075 assault ships China intends to build, but the roughly 40,000-ton vessels will afford the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) significant power projection capabilities. The vessels will be able to carry 30 helicopters onboard—six of which would be able to takeoff simultaneously from the flight deck. The massive 820-foot long—with a 98.4-foot beam—vessels will also feature a well-deck for launching ship-to-shore connectors and amphibious vehicles of various types.
One feature the new Chinese vessels lack compared to their American counterparts is that the Type 075 does not have the ability to support fixed-wing air operations. China does not have a short takeoff/vertical landing aircraft similar to the Boeing AV-8B Harrier II or Lockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. However, there were unconfirmed reports in 2011 that China had started to development work on such an aircraft, as I have previously reported in Defense News.
The Type 075-class vessels would complement China’s existing fleet of four Type 071 amphibious transport dock ships, which are similar in concept to the U.S. Navy’s San Antonio-class (LPD-17) vessels. The vessels can haul an entire battalion of PLAN marines, their equipment and ship-to-shore connectors—including air-cushioned landing craft, 20 armored vehicles and four helicopters. Two more Type 071s are currently under construction.
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