The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday.
Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan.
However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended purpose, Shen said.
Photo: Reuters
The Chinese landing bridge ship model is typically equipped with a 120m-long bridge-like structure at the bow, allowing heavy vehicles such as tanks to move directly from a barge onto shore, he said.
The stern has a loading ramp that can connect to roll-on/roll-off ferries, creating a continuous landing chain to compensate for the PLA’s shortage of large amphibious ships and to enable faster deployment of armored units, he said.
The Chinese military has three landing bridge ships, the Donggong 401, the Donggong 402 and the Donggong 403, he said.
They are part of the East Sea Fleet of the Eastern Theater Command, the unit tasked with operations against Taiwan, he said.
The ships could be used to deploy reinforcements quickly once a beachhead is established, Shen said.
However, during the transit phase, the large unarmed vessels would be visible targets as soon as they set sail and could be destroyed by anti-ship missiles or airstrikes, he said.
If they are hit at that stage, the ships, the armored vehicles and the personnel on board would be lost, Shen said.
During the landing phase, when the vessels connect to ferries or large amphibious ships, they would become even larger targets, Shen said.
Strikes against their connecting structures would also disrupt landing operations, he added.
Even if the PLA secured a beachhead, Taiwan’s long-range weapons, such as the Thunderbolt-2000 and HIMARS multiple-launch rocket systems, as well as ambushes by special operatives near the landing sites, could cripple the vessels, Shen said.
Their high susceptibility to detection and attack means that they do not have significant operational value, he said.
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