88 Xu Xiake integrated support vessel
The Chinese Navy's comprehensive support ship was designed by the China Shipbuilding Industry Research Institute 708. Its ship type is said to be derived from the 903A integrated supply ship. The overall appearance is basically similar to a cruise ship. The displacement is about 23,000 to 30,000 tons. It can accommodate up to 2,500 people to live at sea for three weeks. The maximum speed is not less than 18 knots and the self-sustaining power is about 30 days.
In the late 2000s, a comprehensive personnel support vessel, No. 88, was built by the 433 Factory (Guangzhou Shipyard International) of the CSSC Group. The NATO code was the Daguan class auxiliary ship. The No. 88 ship was commissioned in July 2011; According to official news in early April 2019, the No. 88 support vessel was named "No. 1 Advance." The second-class B-class of the ship, namely the deputy division system, is at the same level as Zheng He and Shichang Ship - that is, other training vessels.
The ship's various life support facilities are very advanced, including a large multi-story conference room with a capacity of 200 people and a video playback system (for entertainment, simultaneous video conferencing, teaching and training, etc.), deck basketball court and 300 meters long ring Runway, multi-function restaurant with 180 seats, combined living room (can adjust the layout of the room according to the number of people on the ship, can be divided into 2 people, 3 people, 4 people), cafe, gym, Internet cafe and entertainment facilities such as Sailor Supermarket, etc., in addition to a medical center equivalent to a tertiary hospital level.
There is a helicopter landing deck at the end of the No. 88 support ship, which can park a 13-ton straight-8 helicopter. Xu Xia has a small number of self-defense systems, including two 81-type anti-submarine rocket launchers, two 57mm artillery pieces and two 30mm cannons.
The Xu Xia Passenger Ship (hull number: 88) is a supporting ship of China's 048 project. After the Chinese aircraft purchased from Ukraine's Varyag (named after the service), after the launch of the aircraft carrier in August 2011, the operation of the No. 88 support vessel was often in line with the Varyag. Obviously, the No. 88 support vessel was code-named. The aircraft carrier development project of the 048 Project (launched in August 2004), including one of the supporting projects for the completion of the aircraft carrier purchased from Ukraine, the aircraft carrier, all relevant supporting carrier aircraft, technology and the formation of aircraft carrier personnel and other related projects) . In late 2016, the second comprehensive maintenance ship of the same type was launched at the Guangzhou Shipyard International, with the number 89. At the same time, China's first domestic aircraft carrier, the 001A model modified from Liaoning, was also under construction, and the No. 89 support vessel is used as a support for the 002 aircraft carrier.
According to the Navy Ship Naming Regulations, the Chinese training ships are named after the multi-user name, and the ship number is generally double-digit. The name of Xu Xiake was taken from the famous geographer and traveler Xu Xiake [January 5, 1587 – March 8, 1641] of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Known as China's Marco Polo, Xu Xiake was a Chinese travel writer and geographer who lived during the Ming Dynasty. He lived in the time of Ming dynasty collapse, with widespread corruption in the empire, economic collapse and financial crisis. The court was prodigal, officials corrupt, and workers and farmers discontented because of additional taxes. There was also a nation-wide rejection of the examinations for the officials among the intellectuals. Xu Xiake was not interested in having a career as an official. He decided rather for the exploring and traveling across his own country.
The Wuxi-born traveler was not only highly praised for his famous geographical treatise, but also noted for his bravery and humility. He traveled around China for more than 30 years, documenting his travels extensively. The records of his travels were compiled posthumously in The Travel Diaries Xu Xiake, and his work translated by Ding Wenjiang. The first real scientific exploration of karst and karst caves in south China was undertaken by Xu Xiake. Chinese karst was studied by Xu Xiake for more than thirty years. He described his journeys to almost half of the territory of the Ming dynasty in his book ˜Xu Xiake’s travels" (˜Xu Xiake youji), that was first published in 1642. Xu Xiake first described different types of the tropical karst and focused on the characteristics and reasons of the tower hills origin. He introduced the term fenglin (peak forest), which is still used in the scientific literature. However, he is not only the father of the modern speleology, karstology, geomorphology and geography in the Chinese scale but in a worldwide sense.
Xu Xiake has a high reputation in his country. Many monuments have been set up in his honor, one of which stands in front of the Institute for geology of karst in Guilin and one in front of the Huangguoshu waterfalls in Guizhou province.
These elegantly designed ships are very un-American. Like the Kaiser's Germany a century ago, the Communist Party of China is building a high seas fleet, with Chinese characteristics. Typically, warships are easy to categorize, given the finite and limited number of missions for which they might be designed. Hence, most Chinese warships have American counterparts that are roughly comparable in design elements, though perhaps not in actual combat capabilities. Of course, the taxonomy of American warships changes over time. As is well known, in the middle of the Cold War, "frigates" became 5,000 ton anti-submarine warfare vessels rather than 10,000 ton multipurpose major surface combatants, which became "destroyers". After World War II, the entire fleet of Floating Dry Docks was completely re-categorized with an entirely new class taxonomy. And it is well known that the primary mission of ships can change over time, as seen with the early Ohio-class SSBNs that were rebuilt as cruise-missile and special forces platforms.
The question of the mission or classification of a ship, particularly a new design built in small numbers, entails no small ontological ambiguity. In some sense it assumes a "rational actor" decision-making model in which the ship is the product of the mind of a single design, whereas in the real world "bureaucratic actor" decision-making can produce ships that respond to a variety of intuitional imperatives, which may change over time. The 88 and 89 integrated support vessels are shaped like a slightly smaller displacement cruise ship, with swimming pools, basketball courts and a few hundred meters of plastic runway. However, its role is far more than just a cruise ship. The 88 Xu Xiake integrated support vessel and her as yet [as of 2019] un-named sister ship resist categorization.
- When the 88 Xu Xiake was first noticed, it was docked across the quay from CV-16 Liaoning, and was initially assessed as an accommodation ship for technicians associated with the fitting out and testing of new ship systems on China's first aircraft carrier. This was a somewhat ad-hoc explanation, since such accommodation ships are typically re-purposed obsolete warships, or accommodation barges which are non-self propelled bedroom hotel barges. A newly built 30,000 ton passenger ship seems like an overly expensive solution to a problem that evidently is normally solved by much less costly alternatives. In any event, the advent of a second Integrated Support Ship to accompany the second carrier at sea renders the accommodation ship explanation implausible.
- Xu Xiake (88) has an important mission - a large-scale overseas evacuation mission, and can also be used as a super large sailing practice ship. The Integrated Living Support Vessel may also undertake a number of other tasks, such as large-scale evacuation and participation in humanitarian support during wartime or overseas turmoil (in the past, such evacuation missions were carried out by large-scale 072 Landing ship to bear). But these are all secondary missions, rather than the primary mission for which the vessels were built.
- When the aircraft carrier has long-term ocean-going activities, the aircraft carrier support ship may bring a second set of personnel to the sea at the same time. During the long-term offshore deployment of the aircraft carrier, regular rotation could be carried out. Half of the personnel will be on duty on the aircraft carrier and the other half will be on the support ship. The Integrated Support Vessel might serve as a stupendous steel beach, mainly devoted to rest and recreation for the crew, or it might serve as a shuttle ship, moving entire replacement crews forward to do crew sea swap, while the carrier itself remains forward deployed.
- To date these ships were mainly used for the residence and rest of the crew, pilots, aviation crew and engineering technicians during sea trials. The main task of this type of integrated support vessel was seen as providing the living space and security of the crew during the mooring test phase and the navigation test phase of the Chinese Navy's large complex ships (such as aircraft carriers). Speculation about carrying two sets of personnel at the same time with one training on a large number of simulators seems unrealistic. But the idea of crew cycling between hands-on training on board the carrier and classroom/simulator training on the Integrated Support Ship makes a bit more sense.
Generally it is assumed that some or most of the crew on one ship transfers to the other ship while both are underway. The Type 001 Liaoning carriers are typically thought to carry Ka-27 anti-submarine helicopters and Ka-31 warning helicopters, neither of which has much in the way of passenger capacity. The carriers are also though to carry Chinese Z-8 [Super Frelon] helicopters [with a capacity of as many as 40 passengers] and Z-9 Super Frelon helicopters [with a capacity of 11 passengers]. If several Z-8 helicopters were employed to transfer 2,000 crew members, with five flights per hour, the whole evolution could be completed in ten hours. A flock of the smaller Z-9 helicopters would take 40 hours, less than two days.
Just to cover all the options, possibly crew might transfer between the ships using a Bosun's Chair. In the US Navy, a highline personnel transfer may be conducted during a replenishment-at-sea. It is a great, safe method to move people between ships when the need arises. Riding the highline is a unique experience. Few people actually get transferred between ships like that. This type of transfer does'n’t happen very often in the US Navy anymore. A Boatswain’s Chair [aka bosun's chair] is a single-point adjustable suspension scaffold consisting of a seat or sling (which may be incorporated into a full body harness) designed to support one person in a sitting position.
In the age of sail, guests were hoisted aboard in a system of pulleys attached to a board known as the boatswain’s chair. When visitors were hoisted aboard the boatswain’s mate coordinated the procedure calling the order to “hoist away” or “avast heaving,” on his call (pipe). When the visitor reaches a predetermined point, and begins their approach to board the ship, sideboys are called to attention, and the boatswain’s mate pipes “alongside. The call ends when the visitor reaches the foot of the gangway. This symbolizes the visitor is alongside the ship and is ready to be brought “over the sides.” The sideboys and all others on the quarterdeck then salute as the boatswain’s mate pipes “over the side.” When the visitor departs the process is repeated in reverse. The total transfer time between ships might be about five minutes, allowing for loading and unloading, so a single highline might have a transfer rate of about 10 crew members per hour. If ten highlines were rigged between the ships, this scheme could transfer 100 crew members per hour. The entire crew swap of some 2,000 crew members could be completed in a day.
Surely during the course of their deployment together at sea, there have been transfers of personnel between an aircraft carrier and a Xu Xiake class integrated support vessel. There have been no public reports of a mass rotation of personnel, nor indications of preparation for such transfers. It is not clear that Western intelligence is looking for such activity, or would initially understand it if detected. Probably the clearest indication would be an outburst of radio traffic between helicopters and surface controllers on both ships.
As a training support ship, the ships of this class could provide for the relatively rapid development of the the sizeable cadre of sailors needed to man the larger big-deck carriers expected to go to sea after the year 2020. In recent years China's naval modernization has largely entailed moving crews from older smaller ships to newer larger ships. This has not entailed a significant change in crew size, though obviously greater crew proficiency is required for the new ships.
But the crews for China's aircraft carrier groups must be conjured out of thin air. If China plans to deploy about 10 big-deck carriers over the coming decades, it must develop the 50,000 or so sailors needed to man these ships. Further thousands will be required to man accompanying vessels [eg, underway store replenishment] that do not have existing direct counterparts. And all of this enlargement of the afloat manning bill will have an corresponding increase in the supporting shore establishment - an increase of 75,000 total deploying sailors might entail another 75,000 in the shore establishment.
This would result in a total increase in the PLAN end strength from about 200,000 in 2020 to about 350,000 before the year 2050, an annual rate of increase of about 6,000. Each Xu Xiake has a passenger capacity of 2,000, some of which would be crew trainees and others trainers. At least one year of training would be needed, if not two years, given that many might wash out of the training cycle. The details are opaque, but the calculations have the right number of zeroes.
All of this is very un-American. The US Navy does not have training ships, not even a tall ship. In contrast, the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force has over half a dozen dedicated training ships. China is building a navy with Chinese characteristics, the details of which are still unfolding.
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