Recently, it was reported that a 9,500-ton ship of the mainland navy, accompanied by a frigate, passed through the Strait of Malacca and entered the waters of the Indian Ocean.
The nearly 10,000-ton ship is actually the Type 926 submarine support ship Yangchenghu, and although it is hardly equipped with decent weapons and accompanied by only a frigate, its arrival still makes the Indian Navy feel like a major enemy. Listen to the name to know what its purpose is, once the submarine breakdown or wreck can provide rescue, peacetime submarine maintenance and supply tasks can also be undertaken by it, simply put, its job is to revolve around the submarine. So when it suddenly appeared near the waters of the Indian Ocean, it naturally caused a high degree of tension on the Indian side.
Submarines play a very important role in the Navy, with the increase of speed, the increase of diving depth and the reduction of noise, and equipped with advanced flying missiles, wire-guided/self-guided torpedoes and other long-range weapons, posing an increasing threat to large and medium-sized surface combat ships, even aircraft carriers, of course, this is in the case of weak early warning capabilities of the other side.
Seawater provides concealment for submarines, but also hides great dangers, once there is any accident or problem in the deep sea, ordinary ships can not provide rescue, must be professional, and submarine support ships are technically difficult and costly, and ordinary countries simply cannot have it. If a country builds or buys a submarine, it can only pray that nothing will happen to it, otherwise it will only become a broken iron in the sea.
In 2021, the Indonesian Navy's submarine Nangara crashed, but they did not have the ability to organize the rescue of the submarine, so at their request, we sent a Type 926 submarine support ship for rescue and salvage. Although the Indonesian Navy had 5 submarines, only 2 had already formed combat strength at that time, and if the Nangara had not been rescued, they would have lost half of their submarine combat strength. This also shows that for small and medium-sized countries, submarine rescue work is difficult to operate.
The mainland has the world's largest conventional submarine force and is also one of the few countries in the world equipped with nuclear submarines, so how to ensure the safety of submarine combat forces has naturally become a top priority. In the 70s of last century, we built the Dajiang-class submarine support ship, and later equipped with domestic deep-diving lifeboats, which further enhanced the equipment for submarine rescue, and the Type 926 submarine support ship in recent years has raised our underwater rescue capability to a new height.
The lead ship of the mainland Type 926 submarine support ship has just been commissioned in 2010, with a displacement of nearly 10,000 tons, mainly responsible for rescuing the wrecked submarine and saving life, and also responsible for assisting in salvage operations, rescuing people who have fallen into the water, etc.
The Hongzehu was the lead ship of the Type 926 submarine support ship, originally named "Ocean Island", but later the No. 881 ocean-going integrated supply ship Hongzehu was decommissioned, so the name of the island was relinquished, and the hull number was changed from "864" to "846" in last year's major adjustment of the auxiliary vessel.
The Type 926 adopts an integrated electric propulsion system, with a diesel engine and a full-swing rudder propeller, which can adjust the position and angle of the ship at will, achieve stepless speed regulation, and have good maneuverability. In addition to the traditional anchor positioning, the Type 926 also combines dynamic positioning for the first time, and with the cooperation of control system, sensors, rudder propeller device and other components, it can achieve all-round positioning below the conditions of 4 sea states and 2 water currents, while achieving accuracy higher than the general level.
The stern deck of the ship has a broadside crane, a stern crane and a crane retention tower, and there are high and medium pressure air joints on both sides to deliver air of different pressures to the rescued submarine, and electrical connectors can help the wrecked submarine emergency power supply.
After receiving the support task, Type 926 loaded the required equipment and materials onto the ship, and then arrived at the submarine crash area, preliminarily determined the position of the submarine, and carried out anchor positioning or dynamic positioning in the sea area above, so as to lock the specific position in order to arrange the operation field. After that, divers or operational remotely operated vehicles will ventilate the wrecked submarine, deliver medicine and food, emergency lighting, etc., and most importantly, supply gas to the main ballast water tank to restore the submarine to self-floating.
The command center can integrate the information of the subsystem and the external information through the local area network, and through fusion processing, display the image and video of the scene, including the entire process of search and rescue operations, so as to provide a basis for better decision-making and command.
The technologies used in the Type 926 submarine support ship are already at the top level of the same type of ships in the world. In addition to assisting Indonesia in rescue work, it has also participated in Sino-Russian maritime exercises, completed the task of searching for and rescuing the wrecked submarine in a very short time, shocked the Russian Navy, and even conducted submarine search operations with the US Navy in the Rim of the Pacific exercise.
In other words, as a submarine support ship, the Yangcheng Lake will appear in the waters of the Indian Ocean, which should be to help the submarine escort, then our submarines may really have entered the Indian Ocean in advance. It's just that with India's technical level, there is no substantial evidence, so this can only be speculation.
Submarines are an indispensable weapon in modern naval warfare, which can be very concealed to supplement the forward military power, and the United States has also specially built a submarine support ship with a full load displacement of more than 20,000 tons, the Frank Cable for nuclear submarines.
For the navy with active submarines, as long as it has the ability, it will be equipped with submarine support ships, as auxiliary ships, to provide logistics support for submarines in peacetime, and when necessary, to carry out submarine rescue work. In addition to its own excellent performance, the mainland's self-produced 926 is also equipped with a deep diving lifesaver, which is the famous LR7 type in Britain, which is the latest improvement of the LR5 type used in the Russian "Kursk" accident.
Although the Russian army soon sent a submarine rescue ship for deep-sea rescue, but the depth was too deep, and the rescue ship was too old to complete the task, and later chartered foreign semi-submersible ships and salvage ships to successfully salvage them. The accident proves that rescue and salvage equipment may not be used at all in peacetime, but when it is really needed, it will be related to the life and death of submariners, so it is very important to ensure its performance.
We have imported at least one LR7 from the UK, which is about 7.6 meters long, weighs 25 tons, and has a propulsion system consisting of 6 propellers, which can dive to a depth of 500 meters and can work underwater for 4 consecutive days. Because it is very small, it can be transported by transport aircraft in emergency times, and it is highly maneuverable. After diving, it can determine the position of the wrecked submarine through the spherical transparent cover in front, then move above it, dock, transfer the personnel in the submarine to the cabin through the hemispherical pressure-resistant transfer device, and then hoist it onto the ship.
In any case, the Yangcheng Lake's trip to the Indian Ocean does represent the whereabouts of mainland submarines to a certain extent, but India's nervousness is completely unnecessary, they are simply afraid that China will have too much influence in the region, thereby threatening their position. However, as the Indian Ocean is an international maritime area, with the continuous increase of the mainland's naval power, the forward deployment in this sea area will inevitably be normalized in order to better protect our sea lines of communication and overseas interests. After all, the Indian Ocean is not the "Indian Ocean", what is the Chinese navy that cannot go? Do you think that's the case?
(The above pictures are all from the Internet, invaded and deleted.) ）