China's Two Amphibious Assault Vessels Complete Operational Capability Tests

China’s first two Type 075 amphibious assault ships – Hainan and Guangxi – being built for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy recently completed full-course training tests including an evaluation on the use of weaponry.

During the training program, a formation of the two vessels intercepted missiles from enemy aircraft and became qualified in tests of air defense, a video PLA Navy released on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo platform showed on Sunday.

During the program, the Hainan and the Guangxi focused on training on core capacities including multidimensional troop delivery and self-defense, and completed full-course qualification test scenarios which effectively enhanced their core operational capacities, the video showed.

“As the PLA's first two amphibious assault ships, the two vessels' success in fulfilling the evaluation indicates that they had built up their operational capacities. This will serve as vital experience for the PLA to deliver more amphibious assault ships and train their crews and enhance their operational capacities,” Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Such experience will help the PLA to significantly shorten the period between the delivery of an amphibious assault ship and building up its operational capacity, according to Song. He noted that in order to safeguard national territorial integrity and national sovereignty in the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea, the PLA Navy needs a large number of amphibious assault ships.

The Hainan (hull number 31) was commissioned on April 23, 2021, and the Guangxi (hull number 32) made its first public appearance in April this year after its commissioning.

The Anhui, the country's third Type 075 amphibious assault ship with hull number 33, conducted realistic combat-oriented training earlier this month, which analysts said indicated that the vessel has entered active service.