Photos of Chinese navy's new supply ship leaked online

The Chinese military may be building a new type of resupply ship, according newly surfaced photos, as the country’s navy seeks to shore up its ocean-going capabilities.

The half-finished People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ship was photographed anchored at a harbour, identified as the Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI), in about two dozen pictures published at the weekend on cjdby.net, an influential military forum in China.

The website is known as an unofficial outlet of rare images of some of the PLA’s latest weapons and caters to a large audience of military enthusiasts.

In the past, the website was among the first to leak images of China's stealth fighter J-20, giving the public a rare glimpse of the PLA’s latest machinery. The Chinese military generally keeps a very tight control over information on its hardware development. 

Photos of the new, unidentified PLA ship were taken from afar but still revealed some telling clues.

The photos showed the largely completed hull of the ship being fitted out. The new ship was docked side-by-side with a similar-sized Type 903A, also known as the "Qiandaohu-class" replenishment ship, which has a water displacement of 23,000 tonnes. The new ship appears to be a modified model of the 903A, but with many different design features。

The person who uploaded the photos is a military enthusiast and active user of the forum. He or she did not disclose where the photos were taken.

Replenishment ships are a key part of the “blue-water” capabilities which the Chinese navy is keen to develop so it can project its global power and step up protection of its own strategic interests across the Indian Ocean and Middle East.

The Chinese navy so far has only less than 10 active large-scale replenishment ships and there is still clearly a gap before it can reach a “fully operational blue-water navy” by 2050.

Military experts pointed to long-distance naval supply capabilities a key vulnerability of the Chinese navy during the rescue mission for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 earlier this year.

Additional reports by Reuters