PLAN breaking news, pics, & videos

Not sure where else to post this, so I think here would do, since @para80 quoted about this on Twitter.





Pictures screenshoted from this video:

Roughly translated:

Landing exercise using a civilian car ferry conducted by the Chinese Armed Forces (PLA). By combining a floating dock and a floating bridge, it is possible to unload vehicles even at points where harbor facilities are not developed. It is estimated that the exercise was held around 2022 from the time the ferry was painted.

Click to expand...

The vessel used is believed to be of the Bohai Hoju-class owned by Bohai Wandu Group (Bohai Ferry). Four ships of the same type have been in service and have been participating in the Chinese military's transport exercises for some time. The image is the Bohai Pearl of the same type ship.

Click to expand...

Gross Tonnage: 24,024t
Total length: 163.9m
Number of cars loaded: about 260
Passenger capacity: about 1,630

Click to expand...

Reminds of the Mulberry harbors from Normandy during WW2. Apart from the element of unpredictability (since this can be used pretty much anywhere), since proper port facilities would be off-limits during the opening stages of AR of Taiwan, equipments like these are absolutely essential for amphibious operations against Taiwanese shorelines.

An illustration from an academic paper that I don't have access to. It appears to show an LFP battery storage system, which is composed of nine modules. Does anyone know if this is military or civilian? If military, is this for surface ships or for submarines?

Allegedly two PLANAF airbases are under construction somewhere in the Northern Theater Command. Can anyone confirm this and ID their locations?

by78 said:

Allegedly two PLANAF airbases are under construction somewhere in the Northern Theater Command. Can anyone confirm this and ID their locations?

Click to expand...

Air base located near the town of Dachang, only 35 km from Yuchi Naval Base, home port of CV16 Liaoning, and about 80 km from Qingdao

Five nice images from a recent exercise.

Five nice images from a recent exercise.

by78 said:

Click to expand...

On the third picture, there are small black objects that are shooting outwards from the barrel, all spread out. Could this be from a sabot round?

CrazyHorse said:

Five nice images from a recent exercise.

On the third picture, there are small black objects that are shooting outwards from the barrel, all spread out. Could this be from a sabot round?

Click to expand...

Yes, 1130 fire sabot rounds:

CrazyHorse said:

Five nice images from a recent exercise.

On the third picture, there are small black objects that are shooting outwards from the barrel, all spread out. Could this be from a sabot round?

Click to expand...

Are we going to have another QBZ-191 "keyholing" thing?

Source EditorLin Congyi
Time2023-03-15 17:37:16

BEIJING, Mar. 15 -- Following the consensus reached by the militaries of China, Iran and Russia, the navies of the three countries will hold the Security Belt-2023 joint maritime exercise in the Gulf of Oman from March 15 to 19, according to a news release from China's Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday.
The Security Belt-2023 exercise is developed from the two joint maritime exercises held by the three countries in 2019 and 2022.
The Chinese military dispatches the guided-missile destroyer Nanning to participate in the exercise on such subjects as aerial search, maritime rescue, ship parade and others.
The Security Belt-2023 exercise will facilitate the deepening of the practical cooperation among the navies of the participating countries, further demonstrate their willingness and ability to jointly protect maritime security, actively build a maritime community with a shared future, and inject a positive momentum to the regional peace and stability.

Sometime between March 8 and March 13, the smaller dry dock in Sanya was filled. This same dry dock housed a Yuan-class submarine recently. Could this indicate a possible relaunch of the submarine, or was the submarine already launched earlier?

Satellite image via SentinalHub. March 13, 2023.