In a brief ceremony held on 25 September 2019, the China State Shipbuilding Corp’s (CSSC) Shanghai-based Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard launched the first of three Type-075 landing helicopter docks (LHD) that are on order from the PLA Navy. Displacing about 30,000 tonnes, the LHD has a length of 250 metres, 32-metre beam width, draught of 8.5 metres, a maximum cruising speed of 23 Knots, and the capacity to house up to eighteen 12-tonne helicopters both above- and below-deck. Design work on the Type-075 LHD began in 2011 and the keel of the first vessel was laid two years ago. The LHD is expected to carry 18 Z-18F ASW/utility helicopters and Z-18K AEW helicopters. CSSC has also been offering a smaller LPH variant of the Type-075 LHD for export.

PLAN’s Type 71 LPD (Landing Platform Dock)

Earlier, in a signing ceremony held in China’s capital Beijing on 9 September 2019 the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) signed a contract with China’s state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corp (CSIC) for procuring a Type-071E amphibious transport dock (LPD). CSIC subsidiary China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) will build the LPD. CSSC’s General Manager, Yang Jincheng, and the RTN Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Luechai Ruddit, signed the contract. The Type-071E is an export variant of the Type-071, or Yuzhao-class LPD, currently in service with the People’s Liberation Army’s Navy (PLAN). The PLAN has six Type-071s in service, with one more being built at the company’s Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai. The RTN’s Type-071E LPD will cost USD200.7 million (Baht 6.1 billion), with delivery being made in 2022. Thailand previously ordered a single S-26T diesel electric submarine (SSK) from CSIC as part of a government-to-government contract signed in 2017. Steel-cutting for this submarine took place on 5 September 2019.

Thailand uses the carrying capacity of its amphibious ships for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) missions in response to natural disasters (mostly flooding as a result of annual monsoonal rains) in addition to more traditional military amphibious operations. The RTN currently operates the HTMS Angthong, a 462-feet Endurance-class LPD acquired from the Marine Division of Singapore’s ST Engineering in 2008. That ship was put into service in 2012. The RTN has also used its sole aircraft carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebet for disaster relief missions, acting as a helicopter carrier.