China’s first amphibious assault ship has finished an 18-day maiden sea trial and returned to its shipyard in Shanghai on Sunday. Pictures posted on China Daily showed the amphibious assault ship sailing back on Sunday afternoon to a berth at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, a major shipbuilder under State-owned defense conglomerate China State Shipbuilding Corp. The ship, the first in the Type 075 class, started its first sea trial from the shipyard on Aug 5. The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and China State Shipbuilding Corp have yet to publish information about the sea trial.
The move indicated that construction of the amphibious vessel has basically finished.The top of its superstructure was blackened by smoke from the chimney. Next, engineers will fix problems exposed during the trial and prepare for further trials. The maiden sea trial took as long as 18 days indicated that the first Type 075 ship must have carried out many tests and performed well in this voyage. Otherwise the trial would have ended much earlier. It will not take long for the vessel to be delivered to the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Another good sign was that the vessel is able to conduct long-duration missions and can sustain itself in such operations.
The Type 075 (NATO reporting name Yushen-class landing helicopter assault) is a class of Chinese amphibious assault ship under construction by the Hudong–Zhonghua Shipbuilding company. The Type 075 helicopter dock is a new generation of amphibious assault vessel and far larger than similar ships previously constructed for the PLA Navy. The Type 075 would give the Chinese navy the ability to launch various types of helicopters to attack naval vessels, enemy ground forces, submarines and also be able to deploy landing craft and troops, plus house command and control operations. On September 25, 2019 the PLAN officially launched the first Type 075. A second Type 075 was simultaneously built in the same dry dock as the first Type 075 and a third Type 075 is now being built in the same location.
Science and Technology Daily previously reported that the Type 075 is about 250 meters long, around 30 meters wide and will displace nearly 40,000 metric tons. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and South Korea have also developed and built modern amphibious assault ships. The Type 075 will mainly be tasked with transporting and landing troops and weapons in hostile territory via landing craft or helicopters as well as providing air fire support. Such ships can play a leading role in anti-ship, ground target strike and landing operations, strongly boosting the Navy’s long-range amphibious capability. the Type 075 will be able to carry many more as well as a stronger force of landing craft, allowing the Navy to execute low-altitude, over-the-horizon fielding of a large quantity of troops.
