Nangong 681 class floating pile driver is a class of little known naval auxiliary ship 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). The name of this class is after the first unit commissioned, with the exact type remains unknown, and only a single unit of this class have been confirmed in active service as of mid-2010s. Nangong 681 class series ships in PLAN service are designated by a combination of two Chinese characters followed by three-digit number. The second Chinese character is Gong (工), short for Gong-Cheng (工程), meaning engineering in Chinese, because these ships are ships built for engineering projects. The first Chinese character denotes which fleet the ship is service with, with East (Dong, 东) for East Sea Fleet, 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 ...

, and South (Nan, 南) for South Sea Fleet. However, the pennant numbers may have changed due to the change of Chinese naval ships naming convention. Nangong 681 class floating pile driver can also be used as a

crane ship A crane vessel, crane ship or floating crane is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy loads. The largest crane vessels are used for offshore construction. Conventional monohulls are used, but the largest crane vessels are often catam ...

References

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