Author: Rainbow Kursk
On the Huangpu River in Shanghai, a 20,000-ton giant ship is under construction, which is not equipped with the Chinese Navy, but is ready to be delivered to the Thai Navy as an export warship, which is the Type 071E Dock Landing Ship.
Earlier, CSSC issued a message that it signed a construction agreement with the Royal Thai Navy for the 071E dock landing ship, and CSSC will build a 071E dock landing ship for the Royal Thai Navy. This is the first time that the 071E (E stands for foreign trade type) dock landing ship has been exported to the outside world, and the 071E has become the largest warship in size and tonnage that China has exported to the outside world so far.
When the 071E joins the Thai Navy, it will become its largest displacement combat ship, even surpassing the Thai Navy's light aircraft carrier Chakri Nalubet.
Photo: China builds a Type 071E dock landing ship for Thailand.
Prior to this, on November 11, 2008, Thailand and Singapore Maritime signed an export-ready version of a Tough-class tank landing ship. In terms of design, the bow bow gate of the prototype ship was eliminated, and the landing ship landing ship was completely dependent on the dock cabin landing, so the Thai side named it an Amphor-class dock landing ship.
This small dock landing ship has a full load displacement of less than 10,000 tons, and both the ability to use aviation power and the ability to carry the dock are very weak, so Singapore has always used it as a tank landing ship. The Thai Navy also recognized this problem after use, so it urgently needed a dock landing ship with greater displacement and combat capabilities to come to the town. Obviously, the 071E is currently the strongest dock landing ship that can be bought in the international market (the new U.S. dock landing ship is not exported).
Photo: Dock landing ship 071E under construction.
071E Dock Landing Ship has optimized the structure of the superstructure of the 071 Dock Landing Ship, shortening the length of the superstructure, making more space for the flight deck, the flight deck has three helicopter take-off and landing points, one more than 071, the hangar can carry 2 helicopters, in an emergency the ship can carry 4 helicopters, and retain a take-off and landing point for take-off and landing operations, which greatly improves the combat capability.
In addition, the 071E is equipped with a FL-3000N close-in missile system behind the 76 mm main gun, and the air defense capability has been strengthened, and there are 2 close-in guns in the cabin, and the overall combat capability is stronger than that of our own 071 type dock landing ship.
Thailand is the traditional use of large surface ships and submarines on the mainland, in addition to multi-type guided missile frigates and submarines, the largest warship exported from the mainland to Thailand is the "Similan" integrated supply ship, which is 171 meters long, 24.6 meters wide, and has a full load displacement of 22,000 tons.
Photo: The Integrated Supply Ship Similan and two Narayson-class frigates exported to Thailand were exported in the 1990s.
The construction of the Type 071E dock landing ship will also provide strong support for the Thai Navy's light aircraft carrier Chakri Nalubet.
In the last century, Thailand began to look for a country that could provide aircraft carriers, and once approached the German shipyard Bremer Vulkan to place an order, but because German national law prohibited the export of aircraft carriers for offensive purposes, and the whole of Germany had never built an aircraft carrier, the order was cancelled and replaced by the Spanish Bazin Shipyard.
The new carrier, named after Princess Chakri Nalubet, once had a sister ship, but was eventually cancelled by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. With a full load displacement of 11,485 tons, the aircraft carrier is still the smallest regular aircraft carrier in the world, and our 0.55 million tons of large-scale displacement is also 12,000 tons.
Photo: Footage of the construction of the light aircraft carrier Chakri Nalubet at the Bazin Shipyard in 1993-1995.
The Thai Navy also specially purchased 7 AV-8S Matador vertical/STOL fighters (Spanish version of AV-8A Harrier fighters) and 2 two-seat TAV-8S combat trainers to form the 301st Flight Squadron, all of which were trained in the United States.
The aircraft only has the ability to use AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles to fight, and mainly uses unguided bombs and rockets to attack or conduct photo reconnaissance when providing close support to the ground.
Photo: Historical photos of Thai aircraft carriers using AV-8S fighter jets.
But even so, Thailand has become the first country in East and Southeast Asia to have a regular aircraft carrier, which has been really powerful for a while. But in the end, with the retirement of these old AV-8S "Matador" fighters, the "Chakri Nalubet" light aircraft carrier became a toothless tiger, and after a long period of silence and became a royal yacht, the ship finally began to carry helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles for combat deployment in recent years, mainly for amphibious combat support, in fact becoming an amphibious assault ship.
In 2015, the ship was upgraded to add Saab's "Sea Giraffe" AMB radar and 9LV MK4 CMS multifunction display system.
In short, in the near future, the Thai Navy will usher in another giant ship - the 071E Dock Landing Ship, and Thailand's aircraft carrier will no longer be alone.
Photo: Recent developments of the light aircraft carrier Chakri Nalubet.