Is China building a bigger support ship for its future Type 004 carrier battle group?

Commercial satellite imagery captured on July 2, provided by Planet Labs and published by defence news outlet TWZ, shows construction progress at the Comec Longxue shipyard near Guangzhou and reveals fresh details of the vessel’s layout.

The images offer insight into how Beijing plans to keep future strike groups supplied at sea.

Assessed as a larger variant of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s existing Type 901 fast replenishment ship, the new vessel was “likely tailored to supporting more advanced aircraft carriers, such as the forthcoming Type 004 and their attendant battle groups”, Sean O’Connor, an imagery analyst with defence intelligence company Janes, said.

Unlike surface combatants that mainly require marine fuel and standard munitions, aircraft carriers demand a much broader range of specialised supplies: from aviation fuel and precision-guided weapons to spare parts for aircraft, and provisions for thousands of personnel.

The larger vessel’s expanded capacity would allow it to better meet those supply demands while simultaneously resupplying escorting guided-missile destroyers for “larger, more diverse carrier air wings”, O’Connor said.

Measuring about 271 metres (890 feet) in length with a beam of around 37 metres, the vessel will rank among the largest replenishment ships anywhere in the world when completed.