Type 922 rescue and salvage ship is a series of rescue and salvage ships developed by China for 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 Chines ...

(PLAN), and after decades of service they still remain active in other Chinese governmental establishments.

Type 922

Type 922 is the first model of Type 922 series, and it was converted from a 3400-ton

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

transferred from Ministry of Transportation. Order to develop rescue and salvage ship was issued on October 27, 1960 and on July 16, 1962, the design was approved. Construction begun in early 1964 after nearly a year of preparation and in July 1965, the ship was launched. Sea trials were successfully completed on July 27, 1966 and test runs for rescue and salvage operations were completed in November of the same year in . The ship was formally handed to PLAN in December 1966 as Hai-Jiu (海救, meaning Sea Rescue) 403.

Type 922II

Type 922II is the development resulted from experience gained from the deployment of Type 922II.On May 5, 1970, a dedicated design was proposed by to the 708th Institute of

China State Shipbuilding Corporation The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is a Chinese shipbuilding conglomerate. Description CSSC is one of the top 10 defence groups in China. It consists of various shipyards, equipment manufacturers, research institutes and shipbu ...

, which is also more commonly known a
China Shipbuilding and Oceanic Engineering Design Academy (中国船舶及海洋工程设计研究)
nowadays. On April 15, 1971, design review of the design begun at

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

. Construction begun at

Guangzhou Shipyard International CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering (Group) Company Limited (COMEC), formerly Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Limited (GSI), is the largest modern integrated shipbuilding enterprise based in Southern China. It was founded in 1954 and is ...

on September 20, 1971, and the ship was launched on September 27, 1973. Sea trials begun in August 1975 and was concluded on January 10, 1976. Test for rescue operations begun on April 23, 1976 and was concluded on June 14, 1976. The ship was formally handed over to PLAN on June 30, 1976 with

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

as Nan-Jiu (南救, meaning South Rescue) 503, and received

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 man ...

as Dalang (大浪), meaning Big Wave in Chinese. After three decades of service, Type 922II was transferred to Chinese Fishery Administration on November 27, 2006 and remains active to this day. Specification: *Length (m): 113.5 *Width (m): 15.5 *Displacement (t): 4450 *Speed: *Range: *Endurance (day): 50

Type 922III

Type 922III was originally planned in 1978, but original design had to be modified to meet the updated requirement. In September 1982, design work was completed and construction begun on December 20, 1982 at Wuchang Shipyard. The ship was originally scheduled to be built by

but a decision was made on May 27, 1982 to have it built at Wuchang Shipyard instead. Type 922III was launched on May 20, 1983, and after traveling to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

, begun sea trials on April 17, 1986. Further tests were conducted in

Zhoushan Zhoushan , formerly romanized as Chusan, is an urbanized archipelago with the administrative status of a prefecture-level city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. It consists of an archipelago of islands at the southern mouth of ...

from May 28 to June 17, 1986, and in

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

and

Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on ...

from July 21 to September 2, 1986. Trials revealed some modification was needed and after such modifications were completed, the ship was formally handed to PLAN as Bei-Jiu (北救, meaning North Rescue in Chinese) 122 in Qingdao on March 31, 1987. Type 922III is armed with twin 37 mm guns and received NATO reporting name Dalang II class.

Type 922IIIA

Type 912IIA is the improvement of earlier Type 912III. The obvious external difference between Type 912IIIA and its predecessor Type 912III is minor and both share the same NATO reporting name Dalang.II class. A total of three ships were built with one serving in each fleet. Type 922IIIA ships in PLAN service are designated by a combination of two Chinese characters followed by three-digit number. The second Chinese character is Jiu (救), meaning rescue in Chinese, because these ships are rescue and salvage ships. 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 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 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, ...

. The pennant numbers have changed or some units due to the change of Chinese naval ships naming convention.Type 922IIIA Dalang class
/ref> Type 922IIIA has received NATO reporting name Dalang III class.

Ships

Original names of some of the ships in the table might have been changed after transferring to different governmental establishments.

References

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