China has upgraded its naval bases to house and support its rapidly expanding combat fleet, according to analysis of recent satellite imagery.
The PLA Navy – the world’s second largest after the United States – is expected to launch at least 10 surface combatants by the end of this year, including eight Type 052D destroyers and two of the bigger and faster Type 054B frigates, with a total displacement of 72,000 tonnes.
The new vessels will join China’s two active aircraft carriers, which together make up 120,000 tonnes, eight Type 055 cruisers at nearly 100,000 tonnes, and three giant Type 075 landing helicopter docks and nine Type 071 amphibious transport docks. All were brought into service over the past 15 years.
With the total number of active warships expected to increase this year to more than 600 warships – triple the number from two decades ago – the People’s Liberation Army has conscripted thousands of retired sailors to crew them.
But the construction of more and bigger piers has been lagging behind the speed at which new vessels are launched – something described by military enthusiasts as “dumping dumplings into soup”.
Satellite imagery from Google Earth and Maxar Technologies has revealed new construction at three naval bases.
The images show work began in the past year on at least two large piers at the Yulin naval base in Sanya, on the southern island of Hainan. The berths, at more than 240 metres (788 feet) long, can accommodate four Type 075 landing helicopter docks.
Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at the Taiwanese naval academy in Kaohsiung, said the satellite imagery showed “to berth more warships, sailors at the Yulin base have adopted an interesting mooring pattern, [accommodating] boats perpendicular to the wharf with sterns lying parallel to the jetty”.
The style of mooring – a hybrid of anchoring, rafting and docking – has been used for centuries in the Mediterranean to fit large numbers of boats within the confines of a town’s quay or sea wall.
Lu also observed another apparent space-saving measure at the South Sea Fleet’s base in Zhanjiang, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Up to three warships were berthed side by side, parallel with a small pier, he noted.
“Mooring warships parallel to the pier is the most popular way adopted by many navies as it’s more stable and convenient for replenishment. But berthing so many ships together is not safe for crews to connect shore power for reconditioning,” he said.
Beijing-based naval analyst Li Jie said the “end-on” Mediterranean mooring was commonly used by the Russian navy and meant “a whole strike flotilla [can] berth in a limited space, which allows crew members to set off for urgent tasks”.
“However, it’s still a stopgap measure because it’s not safe in bad weather due to instability. Building more large piers is still a long-term solution,” Li said.
Yulin and Zhanjiang are the PLA’s most important strategic bases for access to the South China Sea.
They also provide logistical support for Chinese flotillas sailing for the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia for anti-piracy escort missions.
Yulin – the South Sea Fleet’s southernmost naval complex – is the home base of China’s first domestically produced aircraft carrier the Shandong, as well as surface warships and submarines.
Construction work has also been under way in the northern province of Liaoning, at the Huludao shipyard and Bohai submarine building plant.
Imagery taken by the European Sentinel-2A satellite in January showed work on an additional two piers was under way at the shipyard, which is also the navy’s key base for new weapons systems testing.
At the PLA’s first and only overseas base, at Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, a 400-metre runway has been added, as well as a new pier that, at 330 metres, can accommodate giant surface platforms like the Liaoning aircraft carrier.
The Djibouti base was established in 2017 to support China’s anti-piracy and peacekeeping missions in the region.
Zhou Chenming, a researcher with the Beijing-based Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank, said that “compared with launching warships, expanding and upgrading naval bases is more complex and needs a longer time to catch up”.
“The set-up of overseas outposts for logistic support is also necessary, as the PLA Navy is more actively engaging in international peacekeeping missions.”
Compared with the more than 750 military bases operated by the US in 80 countries, Chinese bases in countries like Djibouti will only be used for replenishment, as well as naval maintenance and repairs, according to Zhou.
“The PLA doesn’t have a global strategy like its US counterpart. The idea of building Djibouti emerged when an accident happened in 2010,” Zhou said.
On that occasion, the Type 052B destroyer Guangzhou broke down during an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden.
“It was the French navy based in Djibouti that gave a hand to crew members on the Guangzhou, an impressive experience [that reminded] the Chinese navy of the need to establish overseas depots,” Zhou said.
Analysts have speculated for years that the deep-sea port at Gwadar in Pakistan could also be used as an offshore base for Chinese naval vessels, with similar functions to the Djibouti facility.
The port, on the shores of the Arabian Sea, is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a centrepiece of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative for trade and infrastructure.