Latest amphibious warship launched in Shanghai

The Jinggangshan dock landing ship, which is the largest warship in the Chinese Navy, was officially launched in Shanghai, Monday's Jiangxi Daily reported.

With a displacement of 19,000 tons, the amphibious warship is 210 meters long and 28 meters wide and can carry helicopters, armored fighting vehicles, boats and landing craft as well as nearly 1,000 soldiers, Jiangxi Daily said.

According to an earlier report on china.com, Jinggangshan is the second of the Type 071 dock landing ship and was built by the Shanghai-based Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard. The first one, Kunlunshan, was launched in 2006 with a displacement of 18,000 tons, it said.

The ship was christened the Jinggangshan last December "to show the love for the revolutionary base area and inherit and carry forward its revolutionary spirit," according to Jiangxi Daily and china.com's report.

Jinggangshan, or Jinggang Mountains, is located in East China's Jiangxi province and is known as the birthplace of China's People's Liberation Army and the cradle of China's revolution.

Meanwhile, Robert Gates says that we won't ever conduct amphibious operations again and the Navy budget is scaled back further.

Wonder where they will want to go with their amphibious forces? Wonder why the Russians just bought new-technology amphibious warfare ships from the French?

Suppose they know something we don't?

“...the largest warship in the Chinese Navy..”?

I thought I read somewhere that they have aircraft carriers....?

It's aircraft carrier, singular, and and it's still fitting out, i.e. it has never in 25 years moved under its own power.

Of course tomorrow that may change and they may actually turn on the engines and engage the whirly things to make it actually for real move. Until it can actually move it's just a hulk, or as I call it the "World's Biggest Carrier Theme Park".

Keep an eye on which countries express an interest in it. China has been trying to cut in on our defense industry and ships can be big money makers. China wants to go toe-to-toe on military sales and try to beat out “American” companies on defense contracts. I say “American” because some of them seem intent on working with the Chinese to dig their own graves.

Interestingly, the Thais who operate a couple of Chinese built frigates already use Harpoon missiles on them and also plan to install the evolved SeaSparrow missile!!

http://defense-studies.blogspot.com/2011/04/thailand-selects-essm-for-frigates.html

In terms of just ships, the US is less of a major player unless you are talking of the used ships segment where the retiring OHP class frigates remain in demand. Companies/shipyards from Europe have been winning the bulk of contracts. Of course US companies are still on top as a far as equipment (weaponry, electronics and sensors) goes which take up most of a ship’s value. So there’s no clear competition between the US and China. Countries like Pakistan and Iran will continue to buy Chinese vessels and weaponry.

Interestingly, the Thais who operate a couple of Chinese built frigates already use Harpoon missiles on them and also plan to install the evolved SeaSparrow missile!!

What worries me is that China wants to sell whole packages. If it was just about hulls, you're right, no worries, but it's the weaponry, electronics, and sensors, and once they are at a point where they are selling an entire package, things get really dicey. They've been buying/begging/stealing everything they can. They are going after commercial, civilian, and military aviation with a vengeance, and I think they will do the same with naval vessels. A few years back, Boeing's CEO mentioned that even though Boeing was doing a lot of work with Chinese companies and helping with the technology side of things, he felt that within 10-20 years China would be competing with Boeing on all levels.

It's worrisome because when these companies start taking even just 10% or %20 of sales from American companies, for some companies, depending on the time frame, that could put them in a bad financial situation. The Chinese will probably be in a better situation to sell entire solutions - ships that are ready to go into service packaged with maritime aircraft, attack aircraft, helicopters, etc. They want to be a one-stop solution.

A lot of people get caught up in Chinese military manufacturing and worry about China trying to fight us militarily over Taiwan or whatever, and they are completely ignoring the fact that what China is doing is going to hurt us economically 20 or 40 years down the road.

China is still at least a decade or so away from offering complete packages. They still need European or Russian Ukranian assistance for propulsion systems and Russian electronics/weaponry. While a lot can change, the interim period is also a problem. A Chinese hull with improved quality control and equipped with European, South African or Russian systems is a very attractive proposition for dozens of nations.

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