Japan spots China’s next-gen amphibious assault ship near its waters

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China is sailing a state-of-the-art amphibious assault ship in the western Pacific for the first time in over a year, in what is seen by regional rivals as a show of strength.

The Type 075 vessel, along with a guided missile destroyer, was seen floating some 120km northeast of Japan’s Miyako islands on Saturday.

The ships were moving southeast between the main islands of Miyako and Okinawa towards the Pacific Ocean, Japan’s Joint Staff Office said on Monday.

Japanese maritime forces responded to the sighting by sending a Kirisame escort squadron on a “warning, surveillance and information gathering” mission, officials said.

The Chinese navy has three Type 075 amphibious assault ships. Another of them was seen last July sailing from the East China Sea towards the Pacific Ocean near Kagoshima prefecture in Japan’s southwest. It was taking part in China’s first far sea drills, which included a 30-day live-fire exercise in the western Pacific last March.

Type 075 is China’s latest and largest landing helicopter dock amphibious assault ship. The ship considerably elevates China’s ability to transport, land and support ground forces operating outside the mainland, military experts say.

The ship measures about 237 metres long, larger than two football fields, and boasts a full-length flight deck for helicopter operations for short-takeoff and vertical-landing aircraft, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

It has the carrying capacity of 900 troops and can also be used as a drone-carrier.

Although smaller than similar vessels of the American navy, the think tank said, Type 075 is one of the largest amphibious assault ships in the world.

“In a Taiwan crisis, such a vessel could be employed to seize Taiwanese offshore territories or support a direct invasion of the main island,” Malcolm Davis, senior military analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told South China Morning Post.

The vessel and its bigger version, Type 076, will be essential for Chinese success in any conflicts in the South China Sea, he said.