Amphibious Assault!
By 
China’s amphibious assault fleet is large and growing larger…
The Type 076 is, to put it bluntly, a beast. It is as long as the US Navy’s America class LHA, but considerably wider. It is substantially larger than the four Type 075 LHAs that China has built over the last decade, displacing an estimated 48000 tons. It will (like the British Queen Elizabeth class) have a dual island, likely due to the need to manage complex air operations involving a large number of different kinds of aircraft.
This is a major aviation platform. It will undoubtedly carry a significant number of helicopters specialized for a variety of defensive and offensive missions, from anti-submarine warfare to ferrying troops to a beach-head to local fire support for those troops. It will also serve as a platform for short and medium range drones that will defend the ship and protect the beach-head. The ship is equipped with a catapult system, unusual for an amphibious assault vessel. It is unlikely that this system will be used to launch fixed-wing fighters. Rather, it will allow the Type 076 to launch larger, more sophisticated drones.
I’m tired to talking with John Quiggin about naval warfare (please stop sending me links to his stuff), but suffice to say that China isn’t building a whole bunch of gigantic amphibious assault ships for its health. For those interested in a deep dive check out Andrew Erickson’s edited volume on what a cross-strait invasion would actually look like in practice; it’s 525 pages but you don’t need to read all of them to get the gist.
Other links:
- Chinese ship suspected of damaging Baltic Sea cables…
- Russia’s navy is in ’90s style collapse mode.
- Some challenges for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force in the north…
- Viktor Bout plying his old trade near the Red Sea…