Battleships are obsolete.
Most likely a 94. IIRC, aren't the new types suppose to be constructed from that new shipyard up North in the Bohai Bay? If so, nothing have been seen, other than one module.
075 LHD thread
- Thread starter nosh
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Battleships are obsolete.
Most likely a 94. IIRC, aren't the new types suppose to be constructed from that new shipyard up North in the Bohai Bay? If so, nothing have been seen, other than one module.
You would expect the news would report something like "055 Destroyer," "094 ballistic nuclear submarine," "075 amphibious assault ship." Particularly 31 Hainan is the first of its type, you would expect something like "31 Hainan is our country's first amphibious assault ship" etc. These are all for normal practice of news reporting. Yet if you listen to the CCTV news, PLAN commissioned a 031 ship, a 105 ship, and a 18 艇 (there is no equivalent one-to-one translation for this word in English, it could be submarine or a fast boat). They even didn't want to utter the word "submarine."
Now, obviously it's not because they wanted to hide the types of the ships since they're quite clear from the video. It also has nothing to do with whether "we know or not here at SDF."
Absolutely agree that naming convention definitely puts the 075 as a capital ship, especially in the context of some sort of amphibious ready group or expeditionary task force as the PLAN expands its blue water capabilities...LHD are capital ships after all. Although they are not carriers, they are still huge ships which makes them a class of their own.
I am also a bit surprised by their naming convention but maybe PLAN is placing them in the carrier league due to their tonnage and to have less provinces feeling left out
That said looking at the commissioning ceremony, the commander and political commissar of the new Hainan 075 hold the rank of Captain (海军上校), while both PLAN carriers are typically commanded by Senior Captains (海军大校, equivalent to a Commodore). I might be reading too much into it, but it would seem as though from a doctrine perspective that the PLAN sees LHDs as another surface combatant asset rather than a lead ship.... as in the commander of 075s reports to some sort of naval task force commander (at the very least a Senior Captain 海军大校 or Rear Admiral 海军少将), rather than him/her commanding the task force (which I would've thought/expected).
More of an observation or my own speculation rather than some sort of written fact or insight anyway - fixed wing and the PLAAF are more of my amateur following and interest rather than naval warfare... That said I am fascinated by PLA doctrine, so the ranks/grades of 075 commanders/commissars and their implications it has on PLA blue water strategy has really piqued my interest.
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Already footage of operation just after commissioning.
Instead of the Roman numeral that the West use [VI] ..it is often designated as 094. It is referred to as Changcheng XX [ literally translated as under water 'Great Wall']
How about light carriers with emals?
Intrepid
Major
Maybe. Maybe not. I expect the biggest ships to get the smallest numbers.
I never expected the "1" for Liaoning because this ship is only an intermediate step.
Giving Liaoning the "1" would also make sense because it's the PLAN's first carrier. Chronologically, it's a good number.
But the rules for pennant numbering are not strictly chronological. The prevailing observation is that different ranges of numbers means the ship belong in different classes, subdivided into different fleets. So we theorized that maybe 1-5 was reserved for NSF, 6-10 for ESF, 11-15 for SSF... etc. And depending on which fleet it went to, Shangdong might have been 1, 6, or 11. But clearly, the PLAN considers 002 a training carrier in the same class and category as 001, and so they are 16 and 17. If 003 is considered a training carrier, it will be 18. Otherwise, I expect it to be assigned to ESF or SSF, so 6 or 11.
We should note that the conventional fleet-based numbering format is also based on shipc lass. For the 055s, 101 and 102 are NSF, while 105 is SSF. So we can expect that 103 and 104 will be assigned to ESF, while 106, 107, and 108 will be for SSF. A new class gets a new number range which is then divided between the three fleets. So the 055As should take up 109-116 after the vintage 051s and 052s are retired. And as we know, the Type 052Ds start from 117 assigned to the NSF, 131 in the ESF, and 161 in the SSF.
Considering that Hainan is 31 and I assume assigned to SSF, I believe that 21-25 is reserved for NSF LHAs, and 26-30 for ESF. And since LHAs make a lot more sense belonging in the south rather than the north, I would expect SSF LHAs to take up 31-40. As there are only 3 Type 075s so far, it's not enough to fill the given range, so these numbers should also apply to the 076s. I can see a run of perhaps 6 to 8 ships of 075 total, and 076 to fill the rest.