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| PLAN Type 901 Replenishment Oiler in initial sea trials |
Chinese ship spotter pictures from December 18th show the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN or Chinese Navy) first Type 901 large replenishment oiler starting its sea trials. The 240 meters long vessel displacing 48,000 tons was launched December 15th 2015 by the GSI shipyard (member of CSSC).
Type 901 is fitted with 5x wet cargo transfer stations (3 on port side) for fuel and water, as well as and 2x dry cargo stations which is comparable with the next class of American supply vessel, the T-AO(X) displacing 50,000 tons.
It has to be notted that according to our colleagues from Eastpendulum, the PLAN classification for Type 901 is "general supply vessel" (综合补给舰) similar to the Fleet Replenishment Oiler (AOR) classification of the U.S. Navy... And not Fast Combat Support (AOE) although Type 901 was designed to support all ships in a carrier strike group, including the aircraft carrier.
Existence of the Type 901 programme emerged in 2011, roughly one year before the commissioning of aircraft carrier Liaoning.
In its initial configuration, the Type 901 was set to be fitted with several self-defense weapon system, such as the H/PJ-11 11-barrel CIWS with a rate of more than 10,000rpm, the HQ-10 missile-based CIWS and a complete electronic countermeasures and warfare suite.
However the final configuration appears to be different (the latest sea trial pictures of Type 901 show that HQ-10 are not fitted after all). As shown in the past, PLAN vessels weapon fits depend on budget, and the Chinese navy is known to "cut" systems when the budget is not enough.
Read the full story at Navy Recognition