In southern Chinaʼs Guangzhou shipyard a peculiar vessel has caught attention of military experts: Its just 650-feet long with a flat-deck design and twin-islands setup (which helps manage both navigation and flight ops)
The ship appeared alongside Chinaʼs larger Type-076 program - a full-size amphibious assault vessel thats being built to carry troops and aircraft. Other nations already use similar ships:
- US Navy operates 9 Wasp and America-class ships
- French navy has 3 Mistral vessels
- Australian navy maintains 2 Canberra ships
- Brazil bought HMS Ocean from UK about 6 years ago
Tom Shugart‚ ex-US Navy submariner spotted this odd ship in commercial photos; its construction speed is remarkable - workers finished hull and deck in just few months versus typical one-year timeframe
The vessels size doesnt make sense unless you consider one thing - China might expect losses during Taiwan operations. Taipeiʼs coastal defense includes:
* 400 Harpoon missiles on 100 mobile launchers
* Multiple Hsiung Feng anti-ship systems
* 25 radar installations
History shows ships vulnerability: about 2 years ago Ukrainian forces used just two missiles to sink Russian cruiser Moskva in Black Sea. The mystery vessel could be Chinas quick-build replacement strategy - or maybe its just a research ship (as some drawings suggest)‚ but either way it fits into broader military capabilities
The 100-mile Taiwan Strait crossing would put invasion ships at risk from missile attacks that are hard-to-spot and harder-to-stop; Chinese planners know this and seem to be preparing multiple options