The bow of the Type 920 hospital ship (Source: Chinese Internet)
The Type 920 is the PLA Navy’s first purposely-built hospital ship designed to provide rapid and flexible medical and surgical services at sea. The contractor of the ship is the Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI). The first hull was launched on 29 August 2007, and will be commissioned in late 2008. It will join the two transport-ship converted hospital ships currently being deployed by the PLA Navy.
No detail regarding the ship’s performance and capabilities is available. It was estimated that the full displacement of the ship is approximately 20,000 tonnes. The propulsion may be in the form of two diesels, with two shafts. The ship was designed to provide medical treatment for military personnel in the war zone, in particular in an amphibious assault operation. If necessary, the ship could also be deployed for humanitarian relief operations in disaster-devastated regions near coast.
The Type 920 hospital ship could provide a total of about 600 beds as well as other medical treatment facilities. The ship has a single-spot flight deck and a hanger at stern to support 1~2 medium size helicopters such as Z-8 or Ka-28. This enables casualties to be directly airlifted from war zone to the ship.
The ship is unarmed, and painted in white colour, with the red cross symbol clearly visible to enjoy Geneva convention protection under the international laws of war.
The first hull of the Type 920 hospital ship at the Guangzhou Shipyard (Source: Chinese Internet)
