As we all know, the mainland navy has three major fleets, namely the North Sea Fleet, the East Sea Fleet and the South Sea Fleet. After the current round of military reform, the three major fleets were assigned to the Northern Theater, Eastern Theater and Southern Theater, so they were also called the Northern Theater Navy, the Eastern Theater Navy and the Southern Theater Navy. The theater navy and the three major fleets after military reform are "a set of men and horses, two brands", and are sub-theater-level units, who is the strongest?
There are many ways to discuss who is the strongest in the naval fleet, but the most mainstream is still more than the number and quality of ships in the fleet. The three major fleets of the Navy each have different functions, and the marine environment is different, so the types and numbers of ships equipped are also different.
The North Sea Fleet is based in Qingdao, Shandong Province, and is responsible for military defense in the Bohai Bay and the Yellow Sea. Those who are familiar with the geography of the mainland know that the Bohai Bay is the sea barrier of the capital Beijing, so the North Sea Fleet has always been equipped with more ships, especially before the nineties, large destroyers and nuclear submarines were excellently equipped for the North Sea Fleet.
The North Sea Fleet is equipped with ships covering aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates, supply ships, conventional submarines, and nuclear submarines, including the Liaoning aircraft carrier, 4 Type 055 destroyers, 8 Type 052D destroyers, 2 Type 051C destroyers, and two Type 052 destroyers. Among them, 055 is the main destroyer of the Navy, commonly known as the 10,000-ton drive. The 051C is an anti-aircraft destroyer with regional air defense capabilities. The Type 052 destroyers have strong anti-submarine capabilities.
The North Sea Fleet has about 24 frigates, including 9 Type 054A frigates and 15 Type 056A frigates. The North Sea Fleet also has a number of submarines, especially nuclear submarines, and for a long time even only the North Sea Fleet was equipped with nuclear submarines.
Before entering the new century, the North Sea Fleet has always been the most powerful fleet among the three generations of our Navy's fleet, for example, the first generation of our Navy's nuclear submarines were all equipped with the North Sea Fleet. After 2000, due to the increased defense pressure in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, the Navy's focus was on the South China Sea Fleet and the East China Sea Fleet, so that the ships of the North Sea Fleet have not been updated for a long time, and they were jokingly called Beihai Nursing Home by netizens. After 2010, with the higher improvement of the mainland's national strength, it has the conditions to improve the strength of the three major fleets at the same time, so after 2010, the North Sea Fleet has successively installed many advanced ships, so that the strength has rapidly improved.
The South China Sea Fleet is based in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, and is mainly responsible for safeguarding the mainland's maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, which is facing a very complicated situation. The strength of the South China Sea Fleet was originally at the bottom of the three major fleets, but later the situation in the South China Sea heated up, and the country strengthened the construction of the South China Sea Fleet, equipped with a series of advanced ships, which have an aircraft carrier (Shandong ship), Type 055 destroyers, Type 052D and Type 52C "shield" ships. Frigates are also indispensable, both Type 054A and Type 056 frigates, about 20 of them. The South China Sea Fleet also has landing ships, amphibious assault ships, and nuclear and conventional submarines. The Marine Corps of the South China Sea Fleet is the strongest of the three fleets.
Although the number of missile frigates of the South China Sea Fleet is only slightly inferior to that of the East China Sea Fleet, it is also considerable. In terms of amphibious land, the South China Sea Fleet also acquired China's first Type 075 amphibious ship, becoming the first of the three fleets to obtain amphibious ships. In addition to the Type 075 amphibious assault ships, the South China Sea Fleet is also equipped with Type 071 dock landing ships, which makes the South China Sea Fleet have amphibious warships of more than 10,000 tons in amphibious combat strength, making it the strongest fleet of the South China Sea Fleet in amphibious combat power. At present, the South China Sea Fleet also has China's largest strategic nuclear submarine. China's Type 093 attack nuclear submarines and Type 094 strategic nuclear submarines are based on bases within the jurisdiction of the South China Sea Fleet.
The East China Sea Fleet is stationed in Ningbo, Zhejiang, and the garrison direction is the East China Sea on the mainland, while facing the Taiwan Strait. The East China Sea Fleet is equipped with Type 052D destroyers, Type 052C destroyers, and Russian-made Hyundai-class destroyers, with frigates Type 054A, Type 054, Type 053H3 and 25 Type 056 ships. The East Sea Fleet has a large number of frigates, including 11 054A, 2 054, 3 053H3 and 25 056 series.
The East China Sea Fleet also has two amphibious assault ships, three Type 071 dock landing ships, and several conventional submarines. The East China Sea Fleet pays great attention to landing combat capabilities, and in addition to amphibious assault ships and dock landing ships, there are 16 072 series tank landing ships and 4 073A landing ships. Three Type 071 dock landing ships of the East Sea Fleet. They are the 988 Yimengshan ship commissioned in February 2016, the 980 Longhushan ship commissioned in September 2018, and the 986 Simingshan ship commissioned in 2020. The Type 071 dock landing ship has a full load displacement of 25,000 tons, can carry a large number of tank armored vehicles, four Type 726 air-cushion landing craft and four Z-8 carrier-based helicopters, and has a fairly powerful amphibious landing combat capability.
Relatively speaking, the East China Sea Fleet is equipped with fewer advanced ships, no Type 055 10,000-ton large drives, and no aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. But in terms of the strategic environment facing the East Sea Fleet, these ships are sufficient.
The East China Sea Fleet seriously lacks strategic depth, and as soon as the formation leaves port, it will be the mainland island of Taiwan. With the current situation in the Taiwan Strait, the East China Sea Fleet cannot be deployed no matter how large it is. Moreover, the deepest point of the Taiwan Strait is more than 80 meters, and the average depth is only more than 60 meters. Compared with the "sea" with a depth of hundreds of meters or even thousands of meters, more than 80 meters is a small ditch, so the waters of the East China Sea are not suitable for nuclear submarines, but it is more suitable to equip conventional submarines.
In the direction of the East China Sea, the mainland also deployed a large number of air force aviation. And the aircraft carrier is originally a maritime airfield, and in the case that the Air Force can fully support the battlefield, the existence of the aircraft carrier does not make much sense, so the East China Sea Fleet is not equipped with aircraft carriers. Besides, the mainland island of Taiwan is only about 130 kilometers from the mainland, and the fighters of the mainland air force can fly over the island in just three minutes. It is not even necessary to dispatch air force aviation, the shore-based naval aviation of the East Sea Fleet can solve the battle.
From the point of view of positioning, the ships equipped with the naval fleet are suitable. What the current East China Sea Fleet needs to strengthen is various types of landing forces, as well as a small amount of air defense and anti-ship firepower.