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Class overview |
Operators | People's Liberation Army Navy |
General characteristics |
Type | Gunboat |
Displacement | 50 tonnes (49 long tons; 55 short tons) |
Length | 24.64 m (80 ft 10 in) |
Beam | 4.25 m (13 ft 11 in) |
Draft | 1.16 m (3 ft 10 in) |
Propulsion | 2 × Gray Marine 6-71 Diesel Engine, 225 hp (168 kW) |
Speed | 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
Range | 990 mi (1,590 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Sensors and processing systems | 1 × navigational radar |
Armament | - 1 × 37 mm (1.5 in) guns
- 1 × 20 mm (0.79 in) guns
- 2 × 12.7 mm (0.50 in) guns
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The Huangpu-class gunboat were gunboats of the People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army Navy, with production first begun at Jiangnan Shipyard on January 20, 1953, after request was submitted in October 1952.. These boats were designated as Type 53A (53 Jia Xing, 53甲型), and a slightly modified version was designated as Type 54A (54 Jia Xing, 54甲型). They entered service in the 1950s and had been completely taken out of active service by the early 2000s and were transferred to law enforcement agencies. However, just like the Shantou, Beihai and Yulin classes that were transferred for law enforcement adaptation, these obsolete and aging boats are not satisfactory in their new roles due to their low maximum speed, sometime as low as 10 knots, which was not fast enough to catch the smugglers’ high speed motorboats. As a result, these boats were subsequently transferred again, this time to reserves, subordinated to naval militia in various Military Maritime Districts in China as training boats and port security / patrol boats within the confines of the harbors.[1]
The new design incorporated a low superstructure fore and aft, providing additional accommodations for police or troops. A lightly armed version with 25 mm main guns received NATO reporting name Beihai class. This advantage combined with their later completion time in comparison to Shantou, Beihai and Yulin classes have made this class more active in the reserve than the others in the naval militia, However, like the Shantou, Beihai and Yulin classes, as the new class of port security patrol boats entering service, the Huangpu class is increasingly being converted, mothballed and eventually scrapped.
Just like the Shantou, Beihai and Yulin classes, many of the surviving units are being converted to naval range support boats and target drones and thus reactivated into active service as minor support auxiliaries. It can be either used as a target control boat to remotely control the converted drones, or as a drone itself. When the drone is in operation, the crew departs the boat.
Most of the range support boats in the PLAN also shoulder the responsibility of inshore surveying and these converted boats are no exceptions, despite the little scientific instruments they carried. The reason is that originally, majority of the hydrographic surveys were conducted by civilian fishing vessels with the additional scientific equipment, naval and governmental crews on board. However, since the Chinese economic reform and the depletion of the fishery resources, the civilian fishing vessels must venture much further out into open ocean and staying longer at the sea, thus could no longer afford to stay in home waters and performing the heavy inshore surveying duties previously assigned under the planned economy era in China prior to the Chinese economic reform. Consequently, the PLAN must come up with their own means to meet such huge demand, and converting former gunboats was one of the answers: although these boats can no longer venture out into open ocean and cruise at their maximum speed like they used to do, they are still quite capable of low speed inshore surveying tasks within the confines of river mouths and bays of Chinese coastlines.
Contrary to the commonly held but erroneous belief that the PLAN is following the tradition of having weaponry on most of its auxiliaries (though there is certainly some degree of this), the retention of weaponry on these converted boats were mainly to save money: in order to reduce the conversion cost, the original weaponry was retained unless it was absolutely necessary to remove the weapons, thus most of the converted range support and surveying boats still maintained most of their original fighting capability.
References
- ^ "Combat Fleets of the World 1984-1985 Edition by Jean Labayle-Couhat, published by Naval Institute Press, ISBN 0870211366, ISBN 978-0870211362". 1984-05-01. Archived from the original on 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
Further reading
- Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Daily report: People's Republic of China, Issues 96-100. National Technical Information Service, 1995.
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Nuclear ballistic missile (SSBN) | - Type 096*
- Type 094 (Jin class)
- Type 092 (Xia class)
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Nuclear attack (SSN) | |
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Conventional ballistic missile (SSB) | |
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Conventional attack (SS/SSK) | |
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Unclassified miscellaneous (IXSS) | |
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Ammunition ships (AE/AEM) | |
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Buoy tenders (AGL) | |
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Cable layers (ARC) | |
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Cargo ships (AK) | Reefer ships (AF) | |
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Cargo ships (AK) | |
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Float-on/float- off ships (AKF) | |
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General stores issue ships (AKS) | |
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Roll-on/roll- off ships (AKR) | |
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Container ships (AKX) | - Converted/militarized container ships
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Self-propelled lighters/barges (YF) | |
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Crane ship (AB) | |
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Degaussing / deperming ships (ADG) | |
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Dive tenders (YDT) | |
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Dredgers (AGD) | |
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Engineering ships | - Engineering ships of unknown class/type: Bei-Gong 275 & 276
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Environmental research ships (AGER) | |
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Fleet Replenishment ship (AEFS) | |
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Floating pile drivers (YPD) | |
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General purpose research ships (AGE) | |
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Harbor utility craft (YFU) | - Converted from various retired gunboats such as Type 53 and Type 55A
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Hospital ships (AH) | Hospital ships (AH) | |
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Medical evacuation ships (AHP) | |
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Ambulance transports (APH) | |
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Ambulance craftd (YH) | |
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Hydrographic survey ships (AGS) | |
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Icebreakers (AGB) | |
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Museum ships | |
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Oceanographic research ships (AGOR) | |
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Oceanographic surveillance ships (AGOS) | |
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Personnel transport (AP) | |
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Range support & target ships (AGT) | |
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Repair ships (AR) | |
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Rescue and salvage ships | |
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Spy ships (AGI) | |
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Submarine support ships | |
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Submersibles (X) | Deep-submergence rescue vehicle (DSRV) | |
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Deep-submergence vehicle (DSV) | |
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Other Submersibles (X) | |
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Diver propulsion vehicles (DPV) | |
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Tankers | |
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Technological research ships | Sonar trials ships | |
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Technical research ships (AGTR) | |
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Unclassified Miscellaneous Submarine (IXSS) | |
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Torpedo trials craft | Torpedo retrievers (TR/TWR) | |
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Torpedo trials ships (YTT) | |
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Tracking ship (AGM) | |
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Training ships (AX) | Training ship (AX) | |
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Training ship, sail (AXS) | |
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Onshore stationary training facilities | |
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Tugs (AT) | Harbor tug (YT) | |
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Large harbor tug (YTB) | |
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Rescue Tug (ATR) | |
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Sea-going Tug (ATA) | |
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Tugs of unknown class/type | - Bei-Tuo 153, 651, 704, 728, Dong-Tuo 845, 861, Nan-Tuo 142, 163, 168, 176, 187, 188
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UAV mothershps (ATLS) | |
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Unmanned surface vehicles (USV) | |
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Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) | |
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Wave gliders | - CSSC series
- Hydrovo series
- Ostar series
- THLMT Black Pearl
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Weapon trials ships (AVM/AGM) | |
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* = Under construction or procurement, CG= Classified as guided missile cruiser by NATO, FF= Classified as light frigate by PLAN |