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China’s new amphibious assault ship is huge, unusual and a bit mysterious.
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It is a notable addition to the Chinese navy, which is apparently suitable for various purposes and missions.
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The most interesting feature of the Type 076 appears to be its catapult system, which could potentially launch fixed-wing aircraft.
The Chinese shipbuilding industry is busy developing a new class of amphibious assault ships. The first ship of this class has been built at an astonishingly fast pace.
But the purpose of the large, advanced Type 076 warship remains a mystery, as there are still plenty of unknowns surrounding this unusual vessel.
Satellite images provided to Business Insider by the Center for Strategic and International Studies show shipbuilding progress on the Type 76 amphibious assault shipalso known as the Yulan class, at Shanghai’s Changxing Island Shipbuilding Base. The images, dated July 4, capture a variety of details about the ship.
Compared to its predecessor, the Type 075, Yushen-class, there appear to be a number of notable differences. Perhaps the most notable is its size. The Type 076 is much longer and larger than the Type 075, and when completed will be the world’s largest amphibious assault ship, easily surpassing its American and Japanese counterparts, according to a CSIS analysis of the new ship.
The advantages of a larger warship include the potential capacity for more aircraft, more space to accommodate different types of personnel on board, and internal storage space for other assets.
But perhaps the most striking aspect of the Type 076 is that it appears to be equipped with a catapult launch system for fixed-wing aircraft, a technology also seen on the Chinese new CNS Fujian aircraft carrierwhich uses an electromagnetic aircraft launch system, just like the newest American aircraft carriers, the Ford class.
“This is something we haven’t seen before,” Matthew Funaiole, a senior fellow at the China Power Project at CSIS, told Business Insider. “No other country has an LHA with a catapult system,” he said, referring to a landing helicopter assault ship. This capability would place the warship somewhere between a traditional assault ship and an aircraft carrier.
The addition of a catapult launch system on the Type 076 suggests, Funaiole added, that China has confidence in the technology, despite only recently introducing it on the Fujian. But it remains unclear what types of fighters China would launch from the Type 076 or whether those aircraft would even be manned.
With the Fujian, China made a technological leap from the ski-jump-like aircraft launch systems of its earlier aircraft carriers to advanced electromagnetic catapults, complete skipping of steam powered catapults in the process.
China could use the catapult system, as experts and top China watchers have suggested, to launch unmanned aerial vehicles. But if it can launch manned aircraft despite operational and technological limitations, that would make the Type 76 almost a hybrid, mini-aircraft carrier, fulfilling an unusual role. The catapults, wide flight deck and open runway would support that, though it’s not easy.
Bryan Clark, a former U.S. Navy officer and defense expert at the Hudson Institute, explained that China likely wants the ability to launch long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles. The new catapult is a “creative” way to achieve that for some of its drones.
The Chinese military uses a variety of attack and reconnaissance drones, and years ago, as CSIS notes in its analysis, photos surfaced of what appeared to be drones at a catapult test range. And at the Changxing facility, apparent mock-ups of unmanned aerial vehicles have been seen at a test facility, though their purpose and intent are unclear.
According to Funaiole, the Type 76’s main role, at least initially, will likely be to better integrate with the way China deploys its UAVs in naval operations.
But at least as important as its capabilities is how quickly the Type 076 could be built.
“I think it’s just as important, if not more important, to emphasize how staggeringly impressive China’s shipbuilding capabilities are,” Funaiole said. He noted that while the exact construction schedule is unclear, China has begun construction of the 076 and likely prioritized it while the new dry dock the ship is in is being completed.
It is just a small sample of the capacity and size of China’s shipbuilding forceThe key lesson from building the Type 076, Clark said, is that it shows how China, once it “has a hot production line” and “is able to essentially leverage commercial shipbuilding capacity into building military ships,” “can build ships like a Type 076 quite quickly.”
Although the Type 76 may seem unusual at first glance, the US could certainly have built a ship of this nature, Funaiole said.
But the U.S. is “rightly and quite heavily relying on supercarriers,” Funaiole said. They are inherently versatile, capable of carrying a large number of aircraft and performing a wide range of missions.
The US also has the America class and the Wasp class amphibious assault ships for other types of missions. “There may not necessarily be a need for this type of platform” in the U.S. Navy, he added.
There are questions about the Type 076’s role in a conflict scenario. For example, it could play a role in an invasion or blockade of Taiwan, or support the use of drones and helicopters for surveillance, anti-submarine warfare and other reconnaissance.
But Clark says the Type 076 is likely more in line with China’s goal of becoming a blue-water navy capable of projecting power far from its own shores. Perhaps that flexibility is exactly what China wants: a ship that can perform a variety of missions and function as a an important addition to the growing navy.
Read the original article at Company Insider
