Duchuan class
dispatch boat
Dispatch boats were small boats, and sometimes large ships, tasked to carry military dispatches from ship to ship or from ship to shore or, in some cases from shore to shore. Dispatch boats were employed when other means of transmitting a message w ...
(YFL) is a class of little known naval
auxiliary ship
An auxiliary ship is a naval ship designed to support combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliary ships are not primary combatant vessels, though they may have some limited combat capacity, usually for purposes of self-defense.
Auxil ...
currently in service with the Chinese
People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN),
With the exact type still remains unknown, it has received the
NATO reporting name Duchuan class, or 渡船 in Chinese, meaning Ferry Boat. A total of three units of this class have been confirmed in active service as of 2022.
[
Ships of this class in PLAN service are designated by a combination of two Chinese characters followed by a two-digit number. The second Chinese character is ''Jiao'' (交), short for ''Jiao-Tong-Ting'' (交通艇), meaning dispatch boat ( ferry) in Chinese, because these ships are classified as dispatch boats. The first Chinese character denotes which fleet the ship is service with, with East (''Dong'', 东) for ]East Sea Fleet
The Eastern Theater Command Navy (), or East Sea Fleet (ESF; ), is one of the three fleets of the People's Liberation Army Navy, operating in the East China Sea under the Eastern Theater Command. It was the first naval force formed by the Peop ...
, North (''Bei'', 北) for North Sea Fleet, and South (''Nan'', 南) for South Sea Fleet
The Southern Theater Command Navy (), or the South Sea Fleet (SSF; ) is one of the three fleets of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, operating in the South China Sea under the Southern Theater Command. It is headquartered in Zhanjiang, ...
. 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: 57 meter
]
References
{{Ship classes of the Chinese Navy, state=uncollapsed
Auxiliary ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy