On 20 July 2024, two units of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the destroyer "Jiaozuo" (type 052D, hull number 163) and the battle group supply ship "Honghu" (type 093A, hull number 906), entered the Baltic Sea on their way to Saint Petersburg and passed through the Danish Straits.
Chinese destroyer Type 052D "Jiaozuo". Photo: Michael Nitz
Destroyer
The 7,500-tonne destroyer "Jiaozuo", which was built at the Jiangnan shipyard in Changxingdao and will not enter service until 2022, is - together with its sister ship "Lushui" - the latest ship in the Luyang class, according to the Janes Fighting Ships fleet manual. The PLAN is already deploying 25 units of this type in three variants, while a further seven ships of the latest batch 052D have been ordered from Chinese shipyards or are currently under construction.
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The 178.5 metre long and 23,000 tonne displacement Fuchi-class battle group supply ship "Honghu" is comparable in size to a task force supply ship of the German Navy. The unit was commissioned in 2016 and, like the "Jiaozuo", is assigned to the PLAN's South Sea Fleet.
Chinese battle group supply ship "Honghu". Photo: Michael Nitz
Lead time
Prior to the transfer to the Baltic Sea, both ships made a five-day supply stop in Casablanca (Morocco) from 10 to 15 July 2024. The two units are part of the PLAN's 46th Naval Escort Task Force, which patrols the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The task force left the naval port of Zhanjiang in the southern province of Guangzhou on 21 February.
Saint Petersburg
The deployment of the two modern PLAN units to the Russian Navy's birthday celebrations in St. Petersburg on 28 July 2024 can be seen as a sign of Beijing's solidarity with Moscow. With the unexpected redeployment of the larger units of the Russian Northern Fleet, these two ships are likely to be the "thickest lumps" in the roadstead of St Petersburg in 2024. Despite the slimmed-down parade, India will also be present alongside China with the Talwar-class frigate "Tabar" (125 metres, 4,000 tonnes) and Algeria with the training ship "La Soumman".
German Coast Guard Potsdam class: Bad Düben (sister ship of the "Bamberg"). Photo: Michael Nitz
Accompaniment
As usual, the two visitors were accompanied by patrol boats from the Royal Danish Navy from the moment they entered the Baltic Sea at Skagen. After passing through the Langeland Belt and into the Pomeranian Bay, the German Federal Police Sea Unit deployed one of its newest units, the "Bamberg", to monitor the passage of the Chinese duo from the Fehmarn Belt through the Bay of Mecklenburg and the Kadet Channel.
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Moin,
the "Jiaozuo" was not moored in the "Sankt-Petersburg roadstead", but directly in the centre of the city of Sankt-Petersburg at a floating pier on the "Leutnant-Schmidt-Uferstraße", directly opposite the "Admiralitätswerften".
On Monday 29 July 2024.July 2024, the corvette "Soobrazitel'nyy" ("Сообразительный"), which is part of the Baltic Fleet, conducted a "Passex" manoeuvre together with the Chinese destroyer "Jiaozuo" in the Gulf of Finland in a training area of the Leningrad naval base; This involved using radar equipment to detect mine barriers set up by an enemy during a training exercise and removing them with artillery fire, as well as carrying out search and rescue operations with assistance at sea for a ship that had been damaged in a battle with the enemy. In addition, people were "rescued" from the Baltic Sea, taken on board and given first aid, as reported yesterday by the TASS news agency: https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/21480889
Today, TASS reported similar activities (it was mainly about "assistance at sea" and rescuing people from the water) of the corvette "Soobrazitel'nyy" ("Сообразительный") with the Indian frigate "Tabar" in the Gulf of Finland as part of the joint Russian-Indian inter-force exercise "Indra-2024", as can be read here: https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/21490045
I have asked before: Why is the BP now making observation and escort trips?
Is this no longer the task of the navy or should it no longer do this (lack of capacity...?)
Dear Captain Lieutenant of the Reserve Roesner,
As a former naval officer, you know that the armed forces are deployed for defence under Article 87a of the Basic Law and that deployment within the Federal Republic of Germany is governed by Article 35 of the Basic Law (mutual legal and administrative assistance).
Therefore, it is not a task for the navy in peacetime and has nothing to do with a "lack of capacity". According to the Federal Police Act, it is simply the task of the Federal Maritime Police to protect the external maritime borders of our country. This also includes the monitoring and control of cross-border traffic at the Schengen external maritime border and the monitoring of sea areas and shipping traffic in the Baltic and North Sea with regard to compliance with shipping police regulations outside the territorial sea.
The Federal Police Sea has an informative link:
https://www.bundespolizei.de/Web/DE/03Unsere-Aufgaben/05Grenzpolizei-auf-See/Grenzpolizei-auf-See_node.html
With kind regards
Klaus Klages
Editorial team marineforum.online