BEIJING, Nov. 21 (ChinaMil) –Recently, the Chinese PLA Navy conducted a test to establish a modular underway replenishment system (UNREP) on a civilian ship, and successfully provided logistics support to naval ships at sea. This breakthrough provides a strong logistics support for Chinese navy to go to the high seas.
During the UNREP experiment at sea, abeam missile frigate Linyi (Hull 547) and the civilian ship Fuzhou were underway and holding station in close proximity. Fuzhou Ship, as the control ship that was pre-installed the modular replenishment system, set up the ship-to-ship transfer system. Then the dry cargo container on Fuzhou ship was mechanically picked up, engaged to a trolley that rode a wire rope between the ships and raised to the deck of the Frigate Linyi. The entire process took only 30 minutes. In the afternoon, Fuzhou Ship set up the receiving device of the UNREP system with alongside comprehensive supply ship Taihu (Hull 889), and successfully completed the cargo transfer.
Using civilian ships to carry out UNREP for naval ships is a new attempt in the field of naval logistics support. The civilian vessels cover a wide range of routes, thus have large potential for replenishment at sea, which implies remarkable military economic benefits. The success of the test provides important technical support for the future development of underway replenishment control technology.