Reference data

Chinese name: Type 071 two-dock landing ship

NATO codename: Yuzhao class

Length: 210 meters,

Width: 28 meters

Displacement at full load: 20000 tons

Powertrain/Shaft: Horsepower SEMTPielstick16PC2.6 Diesel ×4

Dual-axis propulsion

Speed estimate: 20 knots

Range estimate: 6000/18 knots

Crew: crew 175,

Electronic equipment: 1×363SE/F-frequency 2D air/plane search radar

1×364 (SR-64) X-frequency 2D air/sea search radar

1× RacalDeca RM-1290I frequency navigation radar

1×345 missile launch control radar

1× LR-66C naval gun fire control radar

1× TR-47C artillery fire control radar

4×726-418 combined jamming missile launcher

Carrying: about 800 troops

About 50 armored combat vehicles of various types

Landing vehicle 4 × air-cushion landing craft

2× personnel landing craft

Carrier-based aircraft 4 × transport helicopters

Armament: 1×PJ-2676mm naval guns

4× AK-63030mm gun

Ships of this class

The construction of the ship's name and ship was launched, and it was subordinate to the construction

Kunlun Mountain 9982006 June 21, 2006, November 30, 2007 South China Sea Fleet Hudong

Jinggangshan, May 9992010, November 18, 2010, October 30, 2011, South China Sea Fleet Hudong

Changbai Mountain, November 9892010, September 26, 2011, September 23, 2012, South China Sea Fleet Hudong

Yimeng Mountain, 988 unknown, January 2015, unknown, Hudong

The Type 071 two-dock landing ship is a large multi-functional amphibious dock landing ship under the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, which can be used as the mother ship of the landing craft to transport soldiers, infantry fighting vehicles, main battle tanks, etc. to carry out landing operations, and can also carry amphibious vehicles, with large helicopter take-off and landing decks and operation facilities.

The Type 071 two-dock landing ship is China's first 10,000-ton combat ship, and it is also the pioneering work of China's large-scale multi-functional amphibious ships, and it can also be said to be the experimental work of China's large-scale combat ships of more than 10,000 tons.

Development History

Before this century, the original amphibious fleet of the Chinese Navy consisted of 1,000 to 4,000-ton landing ships as the main backbone, and these ships had a small tonnage, limited carrying capacity, very lacking helicopter operation capabilities, and the self-defense armament on the ships was generally outdated, and it can be said that there were many deficiencies in modern amphibious landing operations. In amphibious operations, these ships have to carry out amphibious operations by landing in front of the enemy in the most dangerous way, and must engage in face-to-face combat with the enemy's predetermined blocking forces; in the Taiwan region or along the coasts of other Asian countries, there are almost no usable and undefended beach landing zones, and the land forces of various countries or regions may quickly control these easy-to-land shipwrecks and ports in wartime, thus limiting the actual landing combat capability of the Chinese Navy's amphibious landing force.

In order to cope with the international and domestic situation in the new era, China urgently strengthened its amphibious combat capability at the beginning of this century, including the intensive construction of 072 and 074 series landing ships in a short period of time, and at the same time, in order to conduct faster and more diversified landing operations, it also designed a new type of dock landing ship for the first time, model 071.

Basic design

The Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship has a very good overall stealth capability, the external lines of the ship are simple and capable, and the lower part of the hull shape is cambered and the upper part is tilted inward at a certain angle, thus forming a diamond-shaped cross-section with good radar stealth performance. The hull is a high freeboard flat deck type, the length and width are relatively small, the hull is wide, the bow and wedge-shaped stern are adopted, the superstructure of the ship is located in the middle of the hull, and the rear part is a large helicopter deck, and the seaworthiness performance is very prominent. The layout of the various electronic equipment and weapon systems on the top deck is very simple and clean, and there are few protrusions of the various systems. The ship's two chimneys are distributed on both sides of the hull, which not only takes into account the characteristics of stealth, but also is very novel.

Deck 1 and the superstructure are mainly equipped with a command room, a control cabin, a medical rescue cabin and some residential cabins, of which the medical rescue cabin is equipped with complete battlefield rescue facilities, which can provide emergency surgery and field rescue capabilities for the wounded and sick on the ship. Deck 2 is mainly the living quarters, offices and galleys of the crew and some of the landing personnel. Below the main deck is the landing module, which is divided into two sections, the front section is the armored vehicle storage compartment, a total of two floors, which can store the landing armored vehicle and some other materials, and there is also a small elevator at the entrance and exit for mobile loading and unloading between the two layers. There is a folding loading hatch on the left and right sides of the outer wall of the front vehicle storage cabin, and all loading vehicles can be directly loaded or landed on the shore through this door. The rear section is a giant dock landing capsule, with a total length of about 70 meters, which is mainly used to moor large and small air-cushion landing craft, mechanical landing craft or vehicle personnel landing craft.

Loading design

The main function of the Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship is to project the plane landing force, and to take into account the air delivery, and the hull is ten plows wide, so it provides the possibility for the ship to carry a larger number of helicopters and landing combat weapons to carry out amphibious landing combat missions.

These landed vehicles were loaded with four Type 726 air-cushion landing craft to transport ashore main battle tanks and other combat vehicles that were not capable of crossing.

Type 726 air-cushion landing craft, NATO code name Yuyi-class, is a medium-sized air-cushion landing craft specially used by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy for the Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship, developed by AVIC and produced by Jiangnan Shipyard. The first ship was launched in December 2009 and can carry a Type 96 or Type 99 main battle tank, or two Type 05 amphibious tanks, or six Type 90 wheeled armored combat vehicles, or 10 light high-speed assault vehicles, which is a considerable number. Four of these landing craft can be parked in the Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship.

Technical data:

Standard displacement: 150 tons

Full load displacement: 160 tons

Overall length: 30 m

Width: 16 meters

Fuel: Diesel

Power: 2 QC-70 gas turbojet engines

Power: 7000 hp

Maximum speed: 60-80 knots

Cruising range: 320 km

Crew: 5 people

Maximum load: 50 tons

Armament: 14.5mm heavy machine gun X2

7.62mm caliber light machine gun X2

Type 071 amphibious dock landing ships can also choose to carry a larger number of light and small amphibious air-cushion landing craft, such as Type 711, Type 716 and Type 722 personnel and vehicle landing craft, or small ships. In terms of transportation, the Type 071 can carry nearly 50 armored combat vehicles of various types, including amphibious armored vehicles, wheeled and tracked infantry fighting vehicles, various anti-armor vehicles, light self-propelled artillery, main battle tanks, etc. The ship can also carry 2-6 transport helicopters as needed, mainly Z-8 and Z-9 helicopters, for vertical landing transportation of personnel and part of the landing combat materials. If necessary, it is also possible to carry a certain number of armed transport helicopters with land attack capabilities, as well as about a reinforced battalion of infantry fighters and their required armament.

Self-defense forces

The Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship is not a surface combat warship, so the armament is not strong, mainly for self-defense, with a PJ-26 76mm naval gun in the bow (this type of naval gun is also used by the 054A), four 726-418 joint jamming missile launchers with the same 052B/C are placed on both sides of the bow and on both sides of the superstructure, and the close defense relies on four AK-63030mm anti-aircraft cannons arranged in the superstructure. Originally, the 071 model was equipped with an eight-mounted Haihong-7 short-range anti-aircraft missile launcher in front of the bridge, but the 071 was not equipped with this weapon until the sea trial and the naval parade in late April 2009.

In terms of electronic equipment, the top of the main mast behind the bridge is equipped with a 363S E/F frequency 2D air/plane search radar, a RacalDeca RM-1290I frequency navigation radar, and the rear mast top is equipped with a Type 364 (SR-64) X-frequency 2D air/sea search radar with a spherical cover, in addition to an LR-66C naval gun fire control radar, and a TR-47C artillery fire control radar responsible for guiding AK-630 cannons.

Construction History

The Kunlun Mountain, the lead ship of the Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship, started construction in June 2006, was launched on December 20, 2006, and was handed over to the ship at the end of November 2007. It was not until mid-2010 that it appeared on the Internet that the Shanghai Hudong Shipyard was building a follow-up ship to the Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship, and the first Chinese domestic LCAC was also delivered to the Chinese Navy at the end of June 2010 and escorted to Somalia with the Kunlun Mountain, which shows that in the first few years of entering service with the Kunlun Mountain, China has a certain grasp of the relevant technology and experience of the dock landing ship, and only then began to build subsequent ships of the same type.

The Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship No. 2 was launched on November 18, 2010, and was subsequently named Jinggangshan, and joined the South China Sea Fleet in early 2012. Although there is no obvious difference between the appearance of the Jinggangshan and the Kunlun Mountain, according to follow-up news, the Jinggangshan has made more than 100 improvements compared with the Kunlun Mountain in terms of detailed design.

On September 26, 2011, the Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship No. 3 built at the Hudong Plant was launched. The third ship was launched on September 26, 2011, and commissioned in the South China Sea Fleet on September 23, 2012, named 989 Changbaishan.

In January 2015, netizens photographed a newly built domestic Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship successfully launched at Hudong Shipyard. This is the fourth ship of this type, and its launch time is more than 3 years after the launch of the No. 3 ship "Shangbaishan" in September 2011. According to expert estimates, this should be the lead ship of the second batch of dock landing ships of this type built in China. It also indicates that the number of landing ships in the Chinese Navy's dockyard and the ability to project amphibious forces will be further enhanced.

Service History

On June 30, 2010, the Chinese Navy dispatched the sixth surface escort group to Somalia, including the Kunlun Mountain for the first time. In addition, the Kunlun Mountain also used the ship's dock to carry a new Type 726 air-cushion landing craft and two high-speed patrol boats to strengthen its maritime raid and arrest capability. Other members of the sixth escort group include the Type 052C destroyer Lanzhou (170) and the Poyang Lake (882) oil-water supply ship. In addition to taking advantage of its huge carrying capacity, another intention of dispatching the Kunlun Mountain was nothing more than to take the opportunity to conduct relevant ocean-going operation training, which was the first time that the Kunlun Mountain carried out dock flooding, retracting and retracting small boats, and operating the Type 726 air-cushion landing craft in the open ocean.

On February 21, 2014, Chinese domestic media published photos of three Type 071 amphibious dock landing ships under the jurisdiction of the South China Sea Fleet going to sea for a drill. At 3 a.m. on March 9, 2014, the No. 999 "Jinggangshan" ship carried a medical detachment composed of 14 medical personnel, an underwater search and rescue detachment composed of 10 divers, a rescue force composed of 52 marines carrying assault boats, rubber boats and other life-saving equipment, and two carrier-based helicopters. The ship continued to reinforce and set sail from Zhanjiang Military Port at 5 p.m. on the 9th, carrying 50 marines and 2 carrier-based helicopters.

Overall rating edit

Judging from the huge cost and construction period required for the Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship and air-cushion landing craft, it will still take a long time for the Chinese Navy to establish a modern ocean-going amphibious combat capability. The Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship, which can continue to operate at sea, has a large loading capacity, and can operate a variety of sea/air vehicles, including helicopters and air-cushion landing craft, has greatly strengthened the Chinese Navy's amphibious combat capability, allowing it to carry out large-scale projection of troops and equipment from the coast to deep inland.

The most important significance of the appearance of the Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship is that the Chinese Navy has an additional weapon to display and project in the face of issues such as economic interests and island ownership in the surrounding waters, adding influence in the disputed South China Sea and the East China Sea, and even posing a potential threat to Japan's southern islands.

Of course, the Type 071 amphibious dock landing ship can also be used as an effective transportation/projection platform for the PLA to participate in international joint overseas peacekeeping and humanitarian rescue operations in the future, and can be used for low-intensity escort, overseas evacuation, emergency rescue and disaster relief, medical rescue and even material transportation. and even improve the PLA's amphibious operation capability in possible high-intensity regular military operations.

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