Chinese Navy to visit three Asian nations for exercises

ZHANJIANG, Guangdong, Nov. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A fleet of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy left here Tuesday for a visit to Pakistan, India and Thailand.

The naval fleet, composed of a Shenzhen missile destroyer and a Weishanhu depot ship, is expected to hold joint military drills, the first ever by the Chinese navy in alien sea areas, with navies of the three nations.

Sources with the fleet said the drills will focus on items in non-traditional areas, such as joint search-and-rescue exercises.

Passing four straits, the fleet is expected to enter the Arabian Sea via northern the part of the Indian Ocean. The whole voyage is almost 10,000 sea miles and the sail will last more than 40 days.

Destroyer Shenzhen, China's self-developed missile destroyer, has visited 11 nations in four previous trips. Weishanhu paid its maiden tour to foreign lands, sources said. Enditem

Thanks for posting this article crazyinsane105. I've always been intrested in this sort of subject.

I know back in the early 70's when Soivet ships would visit a port say like Barcelona the sailors on board did not unsupervised liberty(shore leave) they had to go off the ships in groups accompinied by a seinor person. I know we saw this in Barcelona and Genoa. Does anyone know how the PLAN will handle their liberty(shore leave) If there is any?

Thanks!

it's a good idea to have these visits, it cuts down the chances of conflict by a lot. also, exercise with both india and pakistan??? that means that neither of them are complaining, perhaps this will bring pakistan and india closer too, which will definitly be good for the world.

perhaps china will follow the soviet way and have a officer with the sailors at all time, just to make sure they don't do anything stupid or get too drunk. but then again, usually when navies make port calls the sailors are very friendly since it's so good to get off a ship after a long time. remember a few months back when the US navy was in qingdao, it was reported they like the shopping and food. hope it's the same for the chinese navy on this trip.

remember a few months back when the US navy was in qingdao, it was reported they like the shopping and food. hope it's the same for the chinese navy on this trip.

Click to expand...

My son's former ship, USS Paul F Foster DD-964, visited Qingdao in 2002.



He echoed what you posted. In fact he said it was the best port they visited their entire deployment.

This deployment by the PLAN looks like a spirit of co-operation between thease Asian neighbors. The fact that both India and Pakistian are participating at the same time is a giant step in the right direction to foster that spirit of co-operation in Asia.

why does china keep using shenzhen? why not the new 52bs and cs, and maybe the 54s?

MIGleader said:

why does china keep using shenzhen? why not the new 52bs and cs, and maybe the 54s?

Click to expand...

correct me if im wrong, but i think 167 is the flagship of the South Sea Fleet... and about the new ships, i don't think china wants to start showing them off yet.. remember they only came a while ago which means the crews trainning abroad might not be proficient compared to the 6 years 167 had... and i guess PLAN doesn't want to show anybody the detailed inside (esp 52C) and electronic systems abroad those ships yet....

so if these are search and rescue missions why would a large destroyer be involved? sholdnt it primarily be small opvs, frigates, and helicopter carriers?

so what ships would the othe two nations be fielding?

the 054 just got commisoned and the 052C hasn't even been commisoned.

MIGleader said:

so if these are search and rescue missions why would a large destroyer be involved? sholdnt it primarily be small opvs, frigates, and helicopter carriers?

Click to expand...

A destroyer and a frigate are of similar size, their difference being in their role, however it is diferent from navy to navy.

A major combatant is a good asset to have in a seach and rescue exercise, as it provides for a base of operations, along with its helicopter and long range surface search radars.

The real reason why they opted for search and rescue as the focus of the exercises (if that is what they are doing), is most likely to be because it is simple, and hard to screw-up, and so reducing the chance of any of the nations involved embarrassing themselves.

In PLAN, destroyer is around 7000 tonne, but a frigate is around 3000.