China's Navy "new" Hospital ship

AssassinsMace

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Re: new PLAN Hospital ship

It does have a resemblance to the new Yuanwang 5 vessel.

post-47-1200264490.jpg
 

tphuang

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Re: new PLAN Hospital ship

as we've seen, this ship has the pennant 866. This is the article about the ship being commissioned into service.
本报讯 (记者/陶达嫔通讯员/陈佳楠)由我国自行研制的全球首艘专门设计的海上医院船,23日在广州完工交船。
  据悉,这艘海上医院船由广州造船企业、广船国际研发制造。该船的交付使用,将使我国成为世界上少数具有远海医疗救护能力的国家之一。
  据介绍,这艘排水量超万吨的医院船配有数百张病床和先进的医疗保障系统及消防、救生设施,每个病房舱室都设有一个护士站,诊疗条件达到三甲医院的水平。
  大型医院船是现代海军的重要标志之一。目前,包括美国等先进国家的海上医疗船均系民船改装而成。23日交付的该船,其排水量之大在同类船舶中堪称“亚洲第一”。据悉,在战时,该船可为作战部队伤病员提供海上早期治疗和部分专科治疗,或为舰艇部队提供卫勤支援等;在平时,则可执行海上医疗救护训练任务,也可以为舰艇编队和驻岛礁等边远地区部队提供医疗服务等。
It said that China's first indigenously designed global medical ship has been handed from Guangzhou shipyard to the navy on the 23rd of this month.

This is designed and built by the guangzhou shipping company and makes China one of the very few countries in the world to far long range medical rescue capability. This ship's displacements is in tens of thousands and has hundreds of bed, advanced disinfectant and life saving instruments. Each sick room has a nursing station, it reaches level 3A hospital standard. Large hospital ship is an important sign of modern navy. US and many advanced world's hospital ships are converted from civilian ship. This is the largest ship of its class in Asia. Then talks about its uses.
 

adeptitus

Captain
VIP Professional
Re: new PLAN Hospital ship

The PLAN doesn't have facilities now to accomodate casualties? What did they do before these ships?
<snip>

I'm pretty sure the PLAN had other vessels with medical facilities.

A designated hospital ship is protected under Hague Convention of 1907, Geneva Convention, and assorted international laws and agreements regarding Law of armed conflict and war crimes.

The hospital ship must abide certain rules to maintain its protected status & cannot carry weapons. Attacking a hospital ship is considered a war crime.

ARMED hospital ships are not protected by the above agreements and nations come up with politically correct names like "Primary Casualty Receiving Ship".
 

tphuang

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Re: new PLAN Hospital ship

this is basically saying that 866 was handed over to the ESF, in a way it doesn't make sense for me, because I had predicted SSF
866船成功交付,海军报披露隶属东海舰队!
最近的一期人民海军报罕见地高调报道了解放军海军最新建成的专用大型医院船---海军866船.她已经于10月23日顺利交付部队,隶属于海军东海舰队某作战支援舰支队.

同时还配发了部分医疗舱内的图片,感觉设计先进合理,确实具备海上三级甲等医院的实力!
 

crobato

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Re: new PLAN Hospital ship

New Chinese Naval Ships a Window into Evolving Strategy

12 Nov 2008
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In late October, U.S.S. Kearsarge, a 40,000-ton amphibious assault ship, arrived off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago laden with hundreds of doctors, nurses and engineers, and tons of medical supplies. The tiny developing country was the fifth stop in Kearsarge's four-month tour of Latin Americahttp://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2562, advancing a new Pentagon strategy for creating security through good deeds. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates calls it "soft power" -- and it's all the rage in a military exhausted by five years of hard combat.

The Navy's three-dozen amphibious ships, with their extensive medical facilities, along with its two specialized hospital ships, are at the forefront of this soft-power strategy, delivering humanitarian workers across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. What's more, the Navy is drafting a study reportedly calling for a 20 percent increase in the size of the amphibious fleet, partly to boost these soft-power missions.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, at the same time that Kearsarge was steaming towards Trinidad and Tobago, the Chinese navy was building its own fleet capable of soft-power "projection." In October, the People's Liberation Army Navy accepted its first purpose-built hospital ship, the 10,000-ton "Ship 866," fitted with "comprehensive functions and facilities equivalent to level-three class-A hospitals," according to People's Daily. Ship 866 joined the fleet just three months after the acceptance of the first of six 14,000-ton Type 071 amphibious assault ships, themselves fitted with surgical bays.


The Chinese Hospital Ship 866 (David Axe).

To some observers, the new vessels' acceptances have signaled Beijing's determination to compete, or even cooperate, with Washington in the realm of soft power. Others say the vessels are intended for more conventional military tasks, but could find themselves pressed into humanitarian missions during major disasters. Either way, Ship 866 and the Type 071s are windows into an evolving military strategy for an emerging world power. In recent years, China has stepped up its investment in developing countries, especially energy-producing states in Africa. Chinese engineers and consultants are fixtures in even the most remote nations, such as Chad and Somalia.

For all that, influential naval analyst Bob Work, from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, says Ship 866 has its roots in an event that took place in Asia: the tsunami that killed as many as 225,000 people in 11 countries bordering the Indian Ocean in 2004.

In the aftermath of that disaster, many countries rushed aid to affected countries by way of amphibious ships. China was virtually alone among major powers in having no ships capable of helping out, Work says. "The tsunami embarrassed them," he says. "The Chinese respond to embarrassments in very focused ways." In this case by rushing new ships into production.

Another analyst disagrees with this assessment. John Pike from the Alexandria, Virginia-based think-tank Globalsecurity.org, says Ship 866 and the Type 071s were designed to give China military options for claiming disputed natural gas and oil reserves in the South China Sea that only recently have become cost-effective for recovery. "One would enforce a claim to the South China Sea by possessing islands. How does one possess island? By amphibious assault."

Such assaults, Pike adds, require both assault ships and the medical support provided by dedicated hospital ships. "If they were only building a hospital ship, I'd be prepared to start thinking about it on humanitarian assistance level, but when they build this [Type 071] landing ship dock simultaneously, I tend to think the decision to build them was made at the same meeting, part of a common plan" for potential island attacks.

"But you can use amphibious ships for human assistance," Pike stresses. "The U.S. does that all the time."

On that point, Work agrees. "It's not an either-or thing."

Nor is competition between the U.S. and China a foregone conclusion as both nations roll out soft-power strategies and new ships capable of advancing them. "The Chinese acknowledge our economic and military superiority. That puts us in the driver's seat in terms of steering the relationship toward greater competition or greater collaboration," James Blaker, from Washington-based American Security Project, wrote in a report published this month.

Blaker recommends that the U.S. Navy invite the Chinese to participate in more joint naval operations. That would be "an initial step toward expanded cooperation in other areas," he writes.

Indeed, the U.S. Navy has used its soft-power initiatives as vehicles for international cooperation, albeit not with the Chinese -- not yet. Kearsarge, on her Latin American cruise, hosted doctors and nurses from Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands and other countries.
 

tphuang

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Re: new PLAN Hospital ship

well, the new hospital ship is coming out now
新华社北京8月30日电(记者孙奕)记者30日从国防部新闻事务局获悉,中国人民解放军海军“和平方舟”号医院船,将于9月1日起航赴亚丁湾海区为我海军护航官兵巡诊,为有关国家在该海域执行打击海盗及护航任务的官兵提供必要医疗服务,并访问吉布提、肯尼亚、坦桑尼亚、塞舌尔和孟加拉国。

  访问期间,医院船医护人员将为往访国民众提供医疗服务,并开展医学交流等活动。
From the look of this, it will leave for Gulf of Aden on September first to visit the sailors there. And also visit Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire and Bangladesh. I guess this is part of the effect 866 has on soft power.
 

tphuang

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Re: new PLAN Hospital ship

Pictures of 866 getting rid to sail off on the aforementioned journey. The first 4 pictures are from the send off and the last one contains the specs to 866.

According to this picture, 886 is 148 m long, 25 m wide and has draft of 5.5 m (35 m high). It is 14300 ton in displacement and has maximum speed of 20 knots. It can sail in level 9 sea state in all corners of the world other than the 2 poles.
 

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Spartan95

Junior Member
Re: new PLAN Hospital ship

Nice pics!

There is a surprisingly large contingent of female military personnel. But I guess that's because this is a hospital ship rather than a surface combatant.

Looks like the PLAN is quite serious in showcasing their "soft power". They have a white contingent, as opposed to the pink contingent that paraded during the 60th National Day last year!
 
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