The Dulaji class are a class of

environmental research ship Technical research ships were used by the United States Navy during the 1960s to gather intelligence by monitoring, recording and analyzing wireless electronic communications of nations in various parts of the world. At the time these ships were a ...

s (AGER) currently in service with the

People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...

(PLAN), and the design is also modified for

cable layer A cable layer or cable ship is a deep-sea vessel designed and used to lay underwater cables for telecommunications, electric power transmission, military, or other purposes. Cable ships are distinguished by large cable sheaves for guiding cab ...

(YRC) in PLAN service, with both versions have received the same

NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...

Dulaji class because they share the same hull. The exact type of this class remain unknown as of 2022, because no official information has been released, despite the ships have already been in service for more than a decade. In addition to the usual task of conducting regular environmental sampling, monitoring/surveillance and research missions, these ships are also tasked with additional task of sewer transfer and treatment from other ships to prevent sewer onboard other ships from overflowing into the sea and thus causing pollution, and thus these ships also act as sewer vessels for vessel sewage discharging. Ships of this class in PLAN service are designated by a combination of two Chinese characters followed by a two-digit number. For the environmental research version, the second Chinese character is Jian(监), meaning monitor in Chinese, since its primary duties included monitoring environment. For the cable layer version, the second Chinese character is Lan(缆), meaning cable (for communication & power) in Chinese, since its primary duties are laying & maintaining communication and power cables. The first Chinese character denotes which fleet the ship is service with, with East (Dong, 东) for East Sea Fleet (ESF), North (Bei, 北) for

North Sea Fleet The Northern Theater Command Navy (), or the North Sea Fleet (NSF; ) is one of the three fleets of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, under the Northern Theater Command. In September 1950 the Qingdao Army Base was redesignated as a naval ...

(NSF), and South (Nan, 南) for South Sea Fleet (SSF). However, the pennant numbers are subject to change due to changes of Chinese naval ships naming convention, or when units are transferred to different fleets. Specification: *Length: 30 meter *Displacement: 300 ton Ships of the environmental research version (AGER): Ships of the cable layer version (YRC):

References

{{Ship classes of the Chinese Navy, state=uncollapsed Auxiliary ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy