Asian Defence News: Chinese Navy

January 29, 2018

September 13, 2017

China launches seventh Type 815A AGI

The seventh improved Dongdiao-class (Type 815A) intelligence collection ship (AGI) on order for China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was launched on 8 September at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai.

The ship is the sixth of the class to be launched since March 2014, with the previous hull entering the water in February 2017. All the ships of the improved Dongdiao class – as well as the original Type 815 – have been built at Hudong-Zhonghua, and it is anticipated that more will be constructed.

The 6,000 tonne (6,614 ton) ships are 130 m (426.5 ft) long with a beam of 16 m and are fitted with three or four very large and highly distinctive radomes that enclose the antennas.

The appearance of the fifth Type 815A hull differs from that of the previous ships of the class due to the installation of a cylindrical ‘Top Hat’ radome on the bridge roof.

Satellite imagery suggests that hull six is configured similarly. No antenna or radome has yet been installed on top of the bridge of the most recently launched ship

September 16, 2015

China Building Airstrip on 3rd Artificial Island, Images Show

New satellite images show that China has started construction of an airstrip on a third artificial island in the South China Sea that will strengthen Beijing's military capacity in the contested waters, Western analysts say.

The photographs, released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, show preparation for airfields on Mischief Reef and Subi Reef, submerged reefs in the contested Spratly Islands that China has transformed into islands, according to the center.

The airstrip on Mischief Reef is about 20 miles from a small Philippine military garrison on an existing tiny island and will put the installation under great pressure, said James Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor of IHS Jane's Defense Weekly.

That airstrip will most likely be used for turboprop patrol, but it could easily be equipped for "full military action" if needed, Hardy said.

The most important function of the strip, he said, will be as yet another site for Chinese listening devices and early warning radar, much like the technology being installed on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands of the South China Sea, which are also contested.

Evidence of that will probably appear soon on Mischief Reef, he said.
China completed a 10,000-foot runway several months ago on Fiery Cross Island, one of five artificial islands it has created in a large reclamation project in the South China Sea this year.

The South China Sea is one of the top areas of disagreement between China and the United States that will be discussed during a state visit by President Xi Jinping to Washington next week.

The Obama administration has called on China to stop land reclamation, construction and militarization of South China Sea outposts, a policy that Washington calls the "three noes."

Washington has expressed concern that the military capacity on the reclaimed islands will interfere with freedom of navigation in the area, one of the world's busiest waterways. With these military runways, the zone of competition between the United States and China across the South China Sea has expanded significantly, experts say.

But China has rebuffed Washington, repeatedly saying that it has "indisputable sovereignty" over about 80 percent of the South China Sea and the right to build what it wants on the Spratly and Paracel archipelagoes.

In June, China's Foreign Ministry said Beijing would stop reclamation on the five artificial islands but would continue to build facilities on them. At the time of the statement, Beijing appeared to have finished much of the reclamation carried out by large flotillas of dredges.

After a speech to Chinese and Western journalists in Beijing on Tuesday, Yang Xiyu, a senior fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, said "difficulties between the United States and China on the South China Sea will continue for a long time."

There is little chance, he said, that the sharp differences will be resolved at the meeting between Xi and President Barack Obama. The best that can be expected is a "consensus" to manage the differences, he said.

In April, when satellite images showed that China was building the 10,000-foot runway on Fiery Cross, 170 miles west of Mischief Reef, U.S. military analysts called the installation a strategic game changer. The size of the runway meant a fighter jet could land on the island, they said.