PLAN Anti-Piracy Deployments

Originally Posted by escobar

The first pic shows officers and men feeding an exhausted seabird and the second one shows them releasing a recovered seabird.

Finally something to rebut the famous cliche that "whatever Chinese caught will always ended up on the dinner table"!

‘Qingdao’ warship berths in Jeddah Port for rest

The “Qingdao” warship of the 11th naval escort taskforce of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) arrived at Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, on the morning of May 1, 2012, local time, for a four-day-long rest and replenishment.

Under the guidance of the local port pilot, the “Qingdao” warship slowly sailed into Jeddah Port at 09:00 in the morning. Li Chengwen, Chinese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and his party as well as representatives from the China-funded institutions greeted the warship at the pier.

It is learned that during the rest and replenishment period, the “Qingdao” warship will receive equipment maintenance and replenishment of freshwater and other materials, while the officers and men will be organized for sightseeing and shopping in batches. During the “Qingdao” warship's rest and replenishment period, the “Yantai” warship and the “Weishan Lake” supply ship of the 11th Chinese naval escort taskforce will continue to execute the escort mission.

the “Qingdao” warship will receive equipment maintenance and replenishment of freshwater and other materials, while the officers and men will be organized for sightseeing and shopping in batches.

Fresh water?? Can't the PLAN ships make their own fresh water? I thought they could?!!

I see there's not a lot of freedom to go on "liberty"..tough..

Originally Posted by bd popeye

Fresh water?? Can't the PLAN ships make their own fresh water? I thought they could?!!

I see there's not a lot of freedom to go on "liberty"..tough..

Since they are heading into port, why not? Saves fuel making the fresh water?

Originally Posted by bd popeye

Fresh water?? Can't the PLAN ships make their own fresh water? I thought they could?!!

I see there's not a lot of freedom to go on "liberty"..tough..

Probably broken during the time at sea, possible even for an old ship that just finished retrofitting...

Besides, Saudi Arabia isn't exactly a safe place now either.

There isn't much for young sailors to do in Saudi Arabia anyways. Are they interested in visiting a mosque? This is a country where fun as we, the non-Saudis, know it is banned. No alcohol, no women to meet, no karaoke bars. Women can't even freakin' drive in Saudi Arabia! The country is just sand, oil, transplanted Western malls and consumer brands, luxury cars, and ultra-conservative Wahhabists.

Originally Posted by Geographer

There isn't much for young sailors to do in Saudi Arabia anyways. Are they interested in visiting a mosque? This is a country where fun as we, the non-Saudis, know it is banned. No alcohol, no women to meet, no karaoke bars. Women can't even freakin' drive in Saudi Arabia! The country is just sand, oil, transplanted Western malls and consumer brands, luxury cars, and ultra-conservative Wahhabists.

Man, you got it nailed right there and there...

good to see China and Saudi Arabia making closer trys, its important that Saudi moves away from Western equipment and starts looking East, not only for military but for its economy, Saudi has a massive shoreline and needs a bigger and better equipped Navy, but they have a bad habbit of buying everything "Western" even if its crap

while back Saudi was showing interest in the Type 45 destroyers from UK!!

Originally Posted by joshuatree

Since they are heading into port, why not? Saves fuel making the fresh water?

If the ship is steam turbine powered no extra fuel is used to distill sea water into fresh water.

If it's diesel that requires a separate plant not dependent on the ships engines..in most cases.

If the ship is not making it's own fresh water that would be a big concern.

as far as i know there are 2 ships in China that can make their own fresh water, these new replenishment tankers and Type 071 LPD

Originally Posted by asif iqbal

as far as i know there are 2 ships in China that can make their own fresh water, these new replenishment tankers and Type 071 LPD

If true.. that is not good. It really limits a navy's ability to stay at sea for long periods..

Fresh water is a great commodity aboard ship. It is used for..

1)Drinking
2)bathing
3)cleaning..including laundry
4)cooking
5)washing aircraft if so embarked.

If the Chinese ships cannot make water that means they must un-rep (underway replenishment) water frequently. Or go to a port that will provide fresh water. This is a logistic situation. Having fresh water is a necessity aboard any ship.

Originally Posted by bd popeye

If the ship is steam turbine powered no extra fuel is used to distill sea water into fresh water.

If it's diesel that requires a separate plant not dependent on the ships engines..in most cases.

If the ship is not making it's own fresh water that would be a big concern.

Good to know. Considering 113 is one of the batch of first "modern" designs for PLAN, its possible she has this limitation as I understand her original setup used components from various foreign suppliers and operational integration was always a challenge. I think after performing 10 anti-piracy rotations, they felt more comfortable with the 11th including an older ship, perhaps to test the improvements from the recent refit?

DDG 113 Qingdao is powered by two Ukraine GT25000 gas turbines rated at 48,600hp (35.7MW), according to Sinodefence.com.
I think we can reasonably assume that fresh water making capability is an add-on to the DDG 113, and they might well be testing out improvements to make these ships more blue-water capable.

As far as I can tell, the Luhu class (Type 052) wasn't really built for blue-water application, green water would be ideal for it.[COLOR="Silver"]

10th Chinese naval escort taskforce returns to base



After successfully completing the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast and wrapping up its visits, the 10th naval escort taskforce of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) returned to its base on the morning of May 5, 2012. Xu Hongmeng, deputy commander of the PLA Navy, attended the welcoming ceremony and expressed the sincere greetings and warm congratulations to all the officers and men of the 10th Chinese naval escort taskforce on behalf of Wu Shengli, commander of the PLA Navy, and Liu Xiaojiang, political commissar of the PLA Navy, as well as the leading organs and all the officers and men of the PLA Navy.

The 10th Chinese naval escort taskforce of the PLA Navy, composed of the "Haikou" warship, the "Yuncheng" warship and the "Qinghai Lake" supply ship, has completed 40 batches of escort missions for 240 Chinese and foreign vessels in more than 6 months since it set sail on November 2, 2011. It also carried out friendly visits to Mozambique and Thailand and berthed in Hong Kong after wrapping up its escort missions.