Important Takeaways:

• The Chinese navy is hard at work on a huge new amphibious assault ship – a combination troop transport and aircraft carrier that could carry hundreds of troops toward Taiwan, and then launch helicopters to deposit those troops behind Taiwanese defenses.
• Why would the Chinese need a third type of big-deck amphibious ship?
• The most chilling answer is that Chinese officials anticipate losing a lot of ships in any attempt to land troops in Taiwan – and they’re planning in advance to replace sunk or damaged Type 075s and Type 076s with smaller assault ships they can build fast and cheap. Or they may want to add numbers to their invasion fleet as quickly as possible.
• Shugart noted it in satellite imagery going back “a few months” prior to October. In those few months, workers completed the ship’s hull and deck.
• In shipbuilding terms, that’s fast. It took Chinese shipbuilders a year to complete the first Type 075; construction of the Type 076 might also take a year.

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