Type 079 landing ship


The Type 079 landing ship was a class of landing ship medium of the People's Liberation Army Navy. There are two subclasses of this type; 079I and 079II.

Background

Design of the Type 079 took more than two years, lasting from 1971 to 1973, and construction began in May 1974 at Guangzhou Shipyard International, and the first ship was launched on July 22, 1976. Due to changes in the Sino-Vietnamese relations, the end customer became PLAN instead of the Vietnam People's Navy. The ship entered PLAN service in October, 1976. This class received NATO reporting name Yulian-class. Trials between December 1972 to January 1977 revealed the performance was somewhat satisfactory, but the speed was slow and the ability to operate in bad weather condition was poor. Work immediately began on a redesign named as Type 079II, while the first unit was subsequently named as Type 079I.
A total of 31 were built, including the conversion of the sole Type 079I to Type 079II standard. 26 were completed by Guangzhou Shipyard International, and 4 were completed by Xiamen Shipyard. Like its predecessor Type 079I, the Type 079II was also designed by 708th Research Institute. The main difference between 079I and 079II is that the latter is larger, with dimensions increased to 72 m x 13.8 m x 2.6 m respectively, and the displacement is increased to 833 tonnes. More complex machinery was added, which lead to the increase of crew member to 109, more than 3 times of that of the original Type 079I. The speed is also slightly increased to 13 kn. Armament is strengthened by the addition of two BM21 122 mm rocket launchers. Nearly three decades after production ended in 1983, most still remain in Chinese service today, mostly in Chinese navy South Sea Fleet, though most of them are delegated to transport duties.

Ships of the class

All have been decommissioned.
Pennant NumberFleetName
957South Sea Fleet
958South Sea FleetFen River（汾河）
959South Sea Fleet
960South Sea Fleet
961South Sea FleetSpring River
962South Sea Fleet
963South Sea Fleet
964South Sea Fleet
965South Sea Fleet
966South Sea Fleet
967South Sea Fleet
968South Sea Fleet
969South Sea Fleet
970South Sea Fleet
971South Sea Fleet
972South Sea Fleet
973South Sea Fleet5 Fingers Mountain
974South Sea FleetLotus Mountain
975South Sea FleetLan River
976South Sea Fleet
977South Sea FleetMount Dingjun（定军山（
978South Sea Fleet
979South Sea FleetYi River（沂水）
980South Sea FleetAli Mountain（阿里山）
981
982
983
984
985
986Si River