Our Annual General Meeting was followed by Alistair Feltham on The Chinese PLA Navy surface fleet from 1960 to 2030. His talk on the People’s Liberation Army surface navy began with an overview of its post-WW2 beginnings with a variety of craft inherited from a variety of sources – logistics must have been a nightmare. With a predominantly land-based strategy there was very little interest in blue-water operations. Developing maturity brought standardisation on Soviet-designed hulls with ‘borrowed’ western technology and increasing indigenous content. The navy continued to rely on US and Ukrainian gas turbines even as it underwent a step change in quality and volume during the 2010s. This followed a pattern of small classes progressively refined until the design was right, then volume production.
The talk drew on public domain sources – the Chinese are not shy about their achievements. It focussed on Chinese-built destroyers and frigates from the type 051 Luda through to the advanced vessels on the slipways today such as the Type 055 Renhai (a cruiser in all but name). It followed each category as a separate thread and covered smaller combatants. The presentation included video of last August’s collision between a Type 056 corvette and 052D destroyer while both were trying to intercept a Philippines Coast Guard cutter.
He also covered their amphibious ships and the entertaining story of the Chinese aircraft carriers, from the ex-Russian Kiev and Minsk bought as scrap and refurbished to the impressive CV18 Fujiam. Besides the talk, he brought a selection of key ships models for us to see after the presentation.
Alistair has sent me a fascinating link to a selection of short papers at the US Naval War College CMSI China Maritime Reports. This is a great follow-
up resource for anyone whose interest was stirred by his talk. With the PLA Navy surface fleet having almost doubled in size since 2008 and projected to exceed 400 ships by the end of this year its capability and aspirations are of vital interest to us all.
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