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116-1009: The People's Liberation Army Navy , also known as the People's Navy , PLA Navy or simply Chinese Navy , is the naval warfare branch of the People's Liberation Army , the national military of the People's Republic of China. It is composed of five sub-branches: the Surface Force , the Submarine Force , the Coastal Defense Force , the Marine Corps and the Naval Air Force , with a total strength of 350,000 personnel, including 70,000 marines and 30,000 naval aviation personnel. The PLAN's combat units are deployed among three theater command fleets , namely

232-684: A rocket system filled with explosive gunpowder materials and had three firing points. It was an effective weapon against ships . In the 8th century the Vikings appeared, although their usual style was to appear quickly, plunder, and disappear, preferably attacking undefended locations. The Vikings raided places along the coastline of England and France, with the greatest threats being in England. They would raid monasteries for their wealth and lack of formidable defenders. They also utilized rivers and other auxiliary waterways to work their way inland in

348-525: A French fleet of 80 ships under Eustace the Monk and an English fleet of 40 under Hubert de Burgh , is notable as the first recorded battle using sailing ship tactics. The battle of Arnemuiden (23 September 1338), which resulted in a French victory, marked the opening of the Hundred Years War and was the first battle involving artillery. However the battle of Sluys , fought two years later, saw

464-634: A commander (a Rear Admiral or Vice Admiral) and a Political Commisar. All PLAN headquarters are subordinate to the PLA Joint Staff Department and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The navy has 240,000 personnel, including 15,000 marines. The People's Liberation Army Navy is divided into three fleets: The People's Liberation Army Surface Force consists of all surface warships in service with

580-518: A corps of admirals and other naval officers was established from the ranks of the ground forces. In shipbuilding the Soviets first assisted the Chinese, then the Chinese copied Soviet designs without assistance, and finally the Chinese produced vessels of their own design. Eventually Soviet assistance progressed to the point that a joint Sino-Soviet Pacific Ocean fleet was under discussion. Through

696-432: A decisive Venetian victory, giving it almost a century to enjoy Mediterranean trade domination before other European countries began expanding into the south and west. In the north of Europe, the near-continuous conflict between England and France was characterised by raids on coastal towns and ports along the coastlines and the securing of sea lanes to protect troop–carrying transports. The Battle of Dover in 1217, between

812-466: A decisive victory for Korea over the Japanese navy. In this battle, 47 Japanese warships were sunk and 12 other ships were captured whilst no Korean warship was lost. The defeats in the sea prevented the Japanese navy from providing their army with appropriate supply. Yi Sun-sin was later replaced with Admiral Won Gyun , whose fleets faced a defeat. The Japanese army, based near Busan , overwhelmed

928-604: A defeat of an Ostrogothic fleet at Sena Gallica in the Adriatic Sea . During the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, Muslim fleets first appeared, raiding Sicily in 652 (see History of Islam in southern Italy and Emirate of Sicily ), and defeating the Byzantine Navy in 655. Constantinople was saved from a prolonged Arab siege in 678 by the invention of Greek fire , an early form of flamethrower that

1044-530: A few amphibious warfare ships and the two commissioned aircraft carriers , while only about 25% of the American ships were launched after 2010 and majority of their tonnage are from its eleven 100,000-ton supercarriers , 21 large amphibious assault ships and experimental capital ships such as the Zumwalt-class destroyers . The dominance of Chinese shipbuilding capacity (over 230 times greater than

1160-442: A few large patrol ships that significantly enhanced their operations; while Customs, militia, Armed Police and Fishery Law Enforcement operated hundreds of small patrol craft . For maritime patrol services, these craft are usually quite well armed with machine guns and 37mm anti-aircraft guns. In addition, these services operated their own small aviation fleets to assist their maritime patrol capabilities, with Customs and CMS operating

1276-599: A fleet of 68 submarines. The PLAN Coastal Defence Force is a land-based branch of the PLAN in charge of coastal defence , with a strength of around 25,000 personnel. Also known as the coastal defense troops, they serve to defend China's coastal and littoral areas from invasion via amphibious landings or air attacks . Between the 1950s and 1960s, the Coastal Defense Force was primarily assigned to repel any Kuomintang attempts to infiltrate, invade and harass

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1392-633: A further Mongol invasion . Although with only scarce information, travellers passing the region, such as Ibn Battuta and Odoric of Pordenone noted that Java had been attacked by the Mongols several times, always ending in failure. After those failed invasions, Majapahit empire quickly grew and became the dominant naval power in the 14–15th century. The usage of cannons in the Mongol invasion of Java , led to deployment of cetbang cannons by Majapahit fleet in 1300s. The main warship of Majapahit navy

1508-472: A great naval expedition that occupied parts of Myanmar , Malaya , and Sumatra . In the Nusantara archipelago, large ocean going ships of more than 50 m in length and 5.2–7.8 meters freeboard are already used at least since the 2nd century AD, contacting India to China. Srivijaya empire since the 7th century AD controlled the sea of the western part of the archipelago. The Kedukan Bukit inscription

1624-689: A handful of Harbin Z-9 helicopters, and a maritime patrol aircraft based on the Harbin Y-12 STOL transport. Naval warfare The armed forces branch designated for naval warfare is a navy . Naval operations can be broadly divided into riverine/littoral applications ( brown-water navy ), open-ocean applications ( blue-water navy ), between riverine/littoral and open-ocean applications ( green-water navy ), although these distinctions are more about strategic scope than tactical or operational division. The strategic offensive purpose of naval warfare

1740-461: A level somewhat below the 1970s rate. Liu Huaqing was an Army officer who spent most of his career in administrative positions involving science and technology. It was not until 1988 that the People's Liberation Army Navy was led by a naval officer . Liu was also very close to Deng Xiaoping as his modernization efforts were very much in keeping with Deng's national policies. While under his leadership Naval construction yards produced fewer ships than

1856-659: A major role in the complicated wars of the successors of Alexander the Great . The Roman Republic had never been much of a seafaring nation, but it had to learn. In the Punic Wars with Carthage , Romans developed the technique of grappling and boarding enemy ships with soldiers. The Roman Navy grew gradually as Rome became more involved in Mediterranean politics; by the time of the Roman Civil War and

1972-464: A major sea invasion near the shores of the eastern Nile Delta using a naval ambush and archers firing from both ships and shore. Assyrian reliefs from the 8th century BC show Phoenician fighting ships, with two levels of oars, fighting men on a sort of bridge or deck above the oarsmen, and some sort of ram protruding from the bow. No written mention of strategy or tactics seems to have survived. Josephus Flavius (Antiquities IX 283–287) reports

2088-617: A military campaign of Persian emperor Darius I over the Bosporus ). During the Han dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), the Chinese began using the stern -mounted steering rudder , and they also designed a new ship type, the junk . From the late Han dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD), large naval battles such as the Battle of Red Cliffs marked the advancement of naval warfare in

2204-680: A motley collection of ships and boats acquired from the Kuomintang forces. The Naval Air Force was added two years later. By 1954, an estimated 2,500 Soviet naval advisers were in China—possibly one adviser to every thirty Chinese naval personnel—and the Soviet Union began providing modern ships. With Soviet assistance, the navy reorganized in 1954 and 1955 into the North Sea Fleet , East Sea Fleet , and South Sea Fleet , and

2320-601: A naval battle between Tyre and the king of Assyria who was aided by the other cities in Phoenicia. The battle took place off the shores of Tyre. Although the Tyrian fleet was much smaller, the Tyrians defeated their enemies. The Greeks of Homer just used their ships as transport for land armies, but in 664 BC there is a mention of a battle at sea between Corinth and its colony city Corcyra . Ancient descriptions of

2436-581: A number of sea battles between galleys ; at Rhium , Naupactus , Pylos , Syracuse , Cynossema , Cyzicus , Notium . But the end came for Athens in 405 BC at Aegospotami in the Hellespont , where the Athenians had drawn up their fleet on the beach, and were surprised by the Spartan fleet, who landed and burned all the ships. Athens surrendered to Sparta in the following year. Navies next played

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2552-623: A platform on their ships called balai and performed boarding actions. Scattershots fired from cetbang are used to counter this type of fighting, fired at personnel. In the 12th century, China's first permanent standing navy was established by the Southern Song dynasty , the headquarters of the Admiralty stationed at Dinghai . This came about after the conquest of northern China by the Jurchen people (see Jin dynasty ) in 1127, while

2668-669: A reliable source of shipwrecks for underwater archaeology . A major example is the exploration of the wrecks of various warships in the Pacific Ocean . The first recorded sea battle was the Battle of the Delta , the Ancient Egyptians defeated the Sea Peoples in a sea battle c.  1175 BC . As recorded on the temple walls of the mortuary temple of pharaoh Ramesses III at Medinet Habu , this repulsed

2784-803: A seven-ship task force from the North Sea Fleet joined warships from the Russian Pacific Fleet to participate in Joint Sea 2013 , bilateral naval maneuvers held in the Peter the Great Bay of the Sea of Japan . To date, Joint Sea 2013 was the largest naval drill yet undertaken by the People's Liberation Army Navy with a foreign navy. On 2 April 2015, during the violent aftermath of a coup d'état in Yemen and amid an international bombing campaign ,

2900-605: A sign of the growing status of China, while the CMC chairman , Hu Jintao , indicated that China is neither seeking regional hegemony nor entering an arms race. Predictions by Western analysts that the PLAN would outnumber the USN submarine force as early as 2011 have failed to come true because the PRC curtailed both imports and domestic production of submarines. Beginning in 2009, China ordered 4 Zubr-class LCAC from Ukraine and bought 4 more from

3016-548: A variety of surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles , improving basic capabilities. In 1986, the Navy's order of battle included two Xia -class SSBNs armed with twelve CSS-N-3 missiles and three Han-class SSNs armed with six SY-2 cruise missiles . In the late 1980s, major deficiencies reportedly remained in anti-submarine warfare , mine warfare , naval electronics (including electronic countermeasures equipment), and naval aviation capabilities. The PLA Navy

3132-425: A vessel's degree of load, from its empty weight as designed (known as "lightweight tonnage" ) to its maximum load. Numerous specific terms are used to describe varying levels of load and trim, detailed below. Ship displacement should not be confused with measurements of volume or capacity typically used for commercial vessels and measured by tonnage : net tonnage and gross tonnage . The process of determining

3248-427: A vessel's displacement begins with measuring its draft . This is accomplished by means of its "draft marks". A merchant vessel has three matching sets: one mark each on the port and starboard sides forward, midships, and astern. These marks allow a ship's displacement to be determined to an accuracy of 0.5%. The draft observed at each set of marks is averaged to find a mean draft. The ship's hydrostatic tables show

3364-450: A vital component of the PLAN, especially as the surface warships of the PLAN continue to improve in terms of anti-ship and air-defence capabilities and the PLAN's power projection begins to extend beyond the first island chain . Today the primary weapons of the coastal defense troops are the HY-2 , YJ-82 and C-602 anti-ship missiles. The PLAN Marine Corps was originally established in

3480-415: Is projection of force by water, and its strategic defensive purpose is to challenge the similar projection of force by enemies. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large landmasses, transportation before the advent of extensive railways was largely dependent upon rivers , lakes , canals , and other navigable waterways . The latter were crucial in

3596-459: Is the oldest record of Indonesian military history, and noted a 7th-century Srivijayan sacred siddhayatra journey led by Dapunta Hyang Sri Jayanasa . He was said to have brought 20,000 troops, including 312 people in boats and 1,312 foot soldiers. The 10th century Arab text Ajayeb al-Hind (Marvels of India) gives an account of an invasion in Africa by people called Wakwak or Waqwaq , probably

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3712-685: The Luhu -class guided missile destroyer Harbin , the Luda -class guided missile destroyer Zhuhai , and the replenishment oiler Nancang began the PLA Navy's first circumnavigation of the Pacific Ocean, a 98-day voyage with port visits to Mexico, Peru, Chile, and the United States, including Pearl Harbor and San Diego . The flotilla was under the command of Vice Admiral Wang Yongguo,

3828-597: The daimyōs to dispatch troops to Joseon Korea to conquer Ming China. The Japanese army which landed at Pusan on 12 April 1502 occupied Seoul within a month. The Korean king escaped to the northern region of the Korean peninsula and Japan completed occupation of Pyongyang in June. The Korean navy then led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin defeated the Japanese navy in consecutive naval battles, namely Okpo, Sacheon, Tangpo and Tanghangpo. The Battle of Hansando on 14 August 1592 resulted in

3944-894: The Axumite Kingdom in modern-day Ethiopia , the Arab traveller Sa'd ibn Abi-Waqqas sailed from there to Tang China during the reign of Emperor Gaozong . Two decades later, he returned with a copy of the Quran , establishing the first Islamic mosque in China, the Mosque of Remembrance in Guangzhou . A rising rivalry followed between the Arabs and Chinese for control of trade in the Indian Ocean. In his book Cultural Flow Between China and

4060-637: The Battle of Actium (31 BC), hundreds of ships were involved, many of them quinqueremes mounting catapults and fighting towers. Following the Emperor Augustus transforming the Republic into the Roman Empire , Rome gained control of most of the Mediterranean. Without any significant maritime enemies, the Roman navy was reduced mostly to patrolling for pirates and transportation duties. It

4176-599: The East and South China Sea (roles that are now largely relegated to the paramilitary China Coast Guard ), and had been traditionally a maritime support subordinate to the PLA Ground Force . Following the collapse of the Soviet Union , the Chinese leadership were freed from overland border concerns with the northern neighbor and shifted towards more forward-oriented foreign and national security policies in

4292-757: The French frigates Nivôse and Prairial , as well as exercises with the Peruvian Navy . The flotilla was under the command of Vice Admiral Ding Yiping, the commander-in-chief of the North Sea Fleet, and Captain Li Yujie was the commanding officer of the Qingdao . Overall, between 1985 and 2006, PLAN naval vessels visited 18 Asian-Pacific nations, 4 South American nations, 8 European nations, 3 African nations, and 3 North American nations. In 2003,

4408-662: The Landing Operation on Hainan Island , the communists used wooden junks fitted with mountain guns as both transport and warships against the ROCN. The navy was established on 23 April 1949 by consolidating regional naval forces under Joint staff Department command in Jiangyan (now in Taizhou, Jiangsu ). The Naval Academy was set up at Dalian on 22 November 1949, mostly with Soviet instructors. It then consisted of

4524-817: The North Sea , East Sea and South Sea Fleet , which serve the Northern , Eastern and Southern Theater Command , respectively. The PLAN was formally established on 23 April 1949 and traces its lineage to maritime fighting units during the Chinese Civil War , including many elements of the Republic of China Navy which had defected. Until the late 1980s, the PLAN was largely a riverine and littoral force ( brown-water navy ) mostly in charge of coastal defense and patrol against potential Nationalist amphibious invasions and territorial waters disputes in

4640-440: The Peloponnesian War (431 BC) between Athens' Delian League and the Spartan Peloponnese . Naval strategy was critical; Athens walled itself off from the rest of Greece, leaving only the port at Piraeus open, and trusting in its navy to keep supplies flowing while the Spartan army besieged it. This strategy worked, although the close quarters likely contributed to the plague that killed many Athenians in 429 BC. There were

4756-473: The People's Armed Police , under the local (provincial) border defense command, prior to its reorganization and consolidation as an unified service. It was formed from the integration of several formerly separate services such as China Marine Surveillance (CMS), General Administration of Customs , Armed Police, China Fishery Law Enforcement and local maritime militia . The CMS performed mostly coastal and ocean search and rescue or patrols, and received quite

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4872-546: The People's Liberation Army Air Force , including fighter aircraft , bombers , attack aircraft , tankers , reconnaissance / early warning aircraft , electronic warfare aircraft , maritime patrol aircraft , transport aircraft and helicopters of various roles. The PLA Naval Air Force has traditionally operated from coastal air bases , and received older aircraft than the PLAAF with less ambitious steps towards mass modernization . Advancements in new technologies, weaponry and aircraft acquisition were made after 2000. With

4988-421: The Persian Wars were the first to feature large-scale naval operations, not just sophisticated fleet engagements with dozens of triremes on each side, but combined land-sea operations. It seems unlikely that all this was the product of a single mind or even of a generation; most likely the period of evolution and experimentation was simply not recorded by history. After some initial battles while subjugating

5104-419: The Republic of China Navy (ROCN) who defected to the People's Liberation Army towards the end of the Chinese Civil War . A number of Japanese and Manchukuo Imperial Navy gunboats used to patrol the river border with the Soviet Union were also handed over to the PLA following the surrender of Japan . In 1949, Mao Zedong asserted that "to oppose imperialist aggression, we must build a powerful navy". During

5220-406: The Siege of Fort Zeelandia , the first time China had defeated a western power. The Chinese used cannons and ships to bombard the Dutch into surrendering. In the Sengoku period of Japan, Oda Nobunaga unified the country by military power. However, he was defeated by the Mōri clan 's navy. Nobunaga invented the Tekkosen (large Atakebune equipped with iron plates) and defeated 600 ships of

5336-498: The United States Navy (USN) — and the largest navy globally by number of active sea-going ships (excluding coastal missile boats , gunboats and minesweepers ) with over 370 surface ships and submarines in service, compared to approximately 292 ships and submarines in the USN. However, the Chinese fleets are much newer and smaller in tonnage, as about 70% of their warships were launched after 2010 and consist mostly of newly designed destroyers , frigates and corvettes with only

5452-420: The largest naval battles in history . In the 15th century, the Chinese admiral Zheng He was assigned to assemble a massive fleet for several diplomatic missions abroad , sailing throughout the waters of the South East Pacific and the Indian Ocean. During his missions, on several occasions Zheng's fleet came into conflict with pirates . Zheng's fleet also became involved in a conflict in Sri Lanka , where

5568-447: The modernization of the PLAN into "a regional blue-water defensive and offensive navy." Transitioning into a blue-water navy , regular naval exercises and patrols have increased in the Taiwan Strait , the Senkaku Islands / Diaoyutai in the East China Sea, and within the nine-dash line in the South China Sea, and all of which China claims as its territory despite the Republic of China (ROC, i.e. Taiwan), Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and

5684-409: The 12th century, Srivijaya is primarily land-based polity rather than maritime power, fleets are available but acted as logistical support to facilitate the projection of land power. Later, the naval strategy degenerated to raiding fleet. Their naval strategy was to coerce merchant ships to dock in their ports, which if ignored, they will send ships to destroy the ship and kill the occupants. In 1293,

5800-457: The 1950s and then re-established in 1979 under PLAN organisation. It consists of around 20,000 marines , and is based in the South China Sea with the South Sea Fleet . The Marine Corps are considered elite troops, and are rapid deployment forces trained primarily in amphibious warfare and sometimes in air assaults to establish a beachhead or act as a spearhead during assault operations against enemy targets. The marines are equipped with

5916-440: The 1970s, greater emphasis was placed on technology and qualitative improvement. Modernization efforts also encompassed higher educational and technical standards for personnel; reformulation of the traditional coastal defense doctrine and force structure in favor of more green-water operations; and training in naval combined-arms operations involving submarine, surface, naval aviation , and coastal defense forces. Examples of

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6032-410: The 1990s, and the PLAN leaders were able to advocate for renewed attention toward limited command of the seas as a green-water navy operating in the marginal seas within the range of coastal air parity . Into the 21st century, Chinese military officials have outlined plans to operate with blue water capability between the first and second island chains , with Chinese strategists talking about

6148-399: The 2001 Hainan Island incident , a major submarine accident in 2003, and naval incidents involving the U.S. MSC-operated ocean surveillance ships Victorious and Impeccable during 2009. At the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the PLAN, 52 to 56 vessels were shown in manoeuvres off Qingdao in April 2009 including previously unseen nuclear submarines. The demonstration was seen as

6264-416: The 2020s, increasing its operational capacity, commissioning new ships, and constructing naval facilities. Observers note that the PLAN's ongoing modernization is intended to build up the Chinese surface fleet and fix existing issues that limit the capability of the PLAN. Observers have noted that the PLAN's expansion will allow it to project Chinese power in the South China Sea and allow for the navy to counter

6380-458: The Black Sea, raiding the coasts of Anatolia and Thrace, and crossing into the Aegean Sea, plundering mainland Greece (including Athens and Sparta) and going as far as Crete and Rhodes. In the twilight of the Roman Empire in the late 4th century, examples include that of Emperor Majorian , who, with the help of Constantinople, mustered a large fleet in a failed effort to expel the Germanic invaders from their recently conquered African territories, and

6496-418: The Chinese coastline. After the Sino-Soviet split and the abandonment of KMT's plans to recapture the Mainland , the Coastal Defense Force was focused on defending China's coast from a possible Soviet sea-borne invasion throughout the 1960s to 1980s. With the fall of the Soviet Union , the threat of an amphibious invasion of China has diminished and therefore the branch is often considered to no longer be

6612-583: The Coastal Defense Forces of 38,000, and the Marine Corps of 56,500. Navy Headquarters, which controlled the three fleet commands, was subordinate to the PLA General Staff Department. In 1987, China's 1,500 km coastline was protected by approximately 70 diesel-powered Romeo - and Whiskey -class submarines, which could remain at sea only a limited time. Inside this protective ring and within range of shore-based aircraft were destroyers and frigates mounting Styx anti-ship missiles, depth-charge projectors , and guns up to 130 mm. Any invader penetrating

6728-437: The East. In the latter engagement, the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei destroyed a large fleet commanded by Cao Cao in a fire-based naval attack. In terms of seafaring abroad, arguably one of the first Chinese to sail into the Indian Ocean and to reach Sri Lanka and India by sea was the Buddhist monk Faxian in the early 5th century, although diplomatic ties and land trade to Persia and India were established during

6844-401: The Greeks of the Ionian coast, the Persians determined to invade Greece proper. Themistocles of Athens estimated that the Greeks would be outnumbered by the Persians on land, but that Athens could protect itself by building a fleet (the famous "wooden walls"), using the profits of the silver mines at Laurium to finance them. The first Persian campaign, in 492 BC, was aborted because

6960-426: The Greeks, but withdrew anyway, and after losing at Plataea in the following year, returned to Asia Minor , leaving the Greeks their freedom. Nevertheless, the Athenians and Spartans attacked and burned the laid-up Persian fleet at Mycale , and freed many of the Ionian towns. These battles involved triremes or biremes as the standard fighting platform, and the focus of the battle was to ram the opponent's vessel using

7076-466: The Hellenic Navy (Greece). These hovercraft/LCACs are built to send troops and armored vehicles (tanks, etc.) onto beaches in a fast manner, acting as a landing craft, and were viewed to be a direct threat to Taiwan's pro-independence movement as well as the conflict over Senkaku Islands . China is continually shifting the power balance in Asia by building up the Navy's Submarines, Amphibious warfare, and surface warfare capabilities. Between 5–12 July 2013,

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7192-517: The Japanese army returned to Japan by the end of December. In 1609, the Tokugawa shogunate ordered the abandonment of warships to the feudal lord . The Japanese navy stagnated until the Meiji period . In ancient China , the first known naval battles took place during the Warring States period (481–221 BC) when vassal lords battled one another. Chinese naval warfare in this period featured grapple-and-hook, as well as ramming tactics with ships called "stomach strikers" and "colliding swoopers". It

7308-410: The Jin to the north, until the Mongols finally conquered all of China. After the Song dynasty, the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China was a powerful maritime force in the Indian Ocean. The Yuan emperor Kublai Khan attempted to invade Japan twice with large fleets (of both Mongols and Chinese), in 1274 and again in 1281, both attempts being unsuccessful (see Mongol invasions of Japan ). Building upon

7424-409: The King of Ceylon traveled back to Ming China afterwards to make a formal apology to the Yongle Emperor . The Ming imperial navy defeated a Portuguese navy led by Martim Afonso de Sousa in 1522. The Chinese destroyed one vessel by targeting its gunpowder magazine, and captured another Portuguese ship. A Ming army and navy led by Koxinga defeated a western power, the Dutch East India Company , at

7540-474: The Korean kingdom of Silla (see also Unified Silla ) and expelled the Korean kingdom of Baekje which were supported by Japanese naval forces from the Korean peninsula (see Battle of Baekgang ) and helped Silla overcome its rival Korean kingdoms, Baekje and Goguryeo , by 668. In addition, the Tang had maritime trading, tributary, and diplomatic ties as far as modern Sri Lanka , India, Islamic Iran and Arabia , as well as Somalia in East Africa . From

7656-423: The Korean navy in the Battle of Chilcheollyang on 28 August 1597 and began advancing toward China. This attempt was stopped when the reappointed Admiral Yi, won the battle of Myeongnyang . The Wanli Emperor of Ming China sent military forces to the Korean peninsula. Yi Sun-sin and Chen Lin continued to successfully engage the Japanese navy with 500 Chinese warships and the strengthened Korean fleet. In 1598,

7772-568: The Malay people of Srivijaya or Javanese people of Mataram kingdom , in 945–946 CE. They arrived at the coast of Tanganyika and Mozambique with 1000 boats and attempted to take the citadel of Qanbaloh, though eventually failed. The reason of the attack is because that place had goods suitable for their country and for China, such as ivory, tortoise shells, panther skins, and ambergris , and also because they wanted black slaves from Bantu people (called Zeng or Zenj by Arabs, Jenggi by Javanese) who were strong and make good slaves. Before

7888-509: The Mediterranean began to wane, the Italian trading towns of Genoa , Pisa , and Venice stepped in to seize the opportunity, setting up commercial networks and building navies to protect them. At first the navies fought with the Arabs (off Bari in 1004, at Messina in 1005), but then they found themselves contending with Normans moving into Sicily, and finally with each other. The Genoese and Venetians fought four naval wars, in 1253–1284, 1293–1299, 1350–1355, and 1378–1381. The last ended with

8004-502: The Mongol Yuan dynasty launched an invasion to Java . The Yuan sent 500–1000 ships and 20,000–30,000 soldiers, but was ultimately defeated on land by surprise attack , forcing the army to fall back to the beach. In the coastal waters, Javanese junks had already attacked the Mongol ships. After all of the troops had boarded the ships on the coast, the Yuan army battled the Javanese fleet. After repelling it, they sailed back to Quanzhou . Javanese naval commander Aria Adikara intercepted

8120-443: The Mōri navy with six armored warships ( Battle of Kizugawaguchi ). The navy of Nobunaga and his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi employed clever close-range tactics on land with arquebus rifles, but also relied upon close-range firing of muskets in grapple-and-board style naval engagements. When Nobunaga died in the Honnō-ji incident , Hideyoshi succeeded him and completed the unification of the whole country. In 1592, Hideyoshi ordered

8236-521: The Navy. Between 1989 and 1993, the training ship Zhenghe paid ports visits to Hawaii, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. PLAN vessels visited Vladivostok in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996. PLAN task groups also paid visits to Indonesia in 1995; North Korea in 1997; New Zealand, Australia, and the Philippines in 1998; Malaysia, Tanzania, South Africa, the United States, and Canada in 2000; and India, Pakistan, France, Italy, Germany, Britain, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand in 2001. In March 1997,

8352-598: The Outside World , Shen Fuwei notes that maritime Chinese merchants in the 9th century were landing regularly at Sufala in East Africa to cut out Arab middle-men traders. The Chola dynasty of medieval India was a dominant seapower in the Indian Ocean , an avid maritime trader and diplomatic entity with Song China. Rajaraja Chola I (reigned 985 to 1014) and his son Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1014–42), sent

8468-465: The PLAN conducted its first joint naval exercises during separate visits to Pakistan and India. Bi-lateral naval exercises were also carried out with exercises with the French, British, Australian, Canadian, Philippine, and United States navies. On 26 December 2008, the PLAN dispatched a task group consisting of the guided missile destroyer Haikou (flagship), the guided missile destroyer Wuhan , and

8584-419: The PLAN helped ten countries get their citizens out of Yemen safely, evacuating them aboard a missile frigate from the besieged port city of Aden . The operation was described by Reuters as "the first time that China's military has helped other countries evacuate their people during an international crisis". China's participation in international maritime exercises is also increasing. In RIMPAC 2014 , China

8700-551: The PLAN's accelerating efforts to expand its capabilities beyond territorial waters, it would be likely for the Marine Corps to play a greater role in terms of being an offshore expeditionary force similar to the USMC and Royal Marines . The People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF) is the naval aviation branch of the PLAN and has a strength of around 25,000 personnel and 690 aircraft. It operates similar hardwares to

8816-517: The PLAN. They are organised into flotillas spread across the three main fleets. The People's Liberation Army Navy Submarine Force consists of all nuclear and diesel-electric submarines in service with the PLAN. The PRC is the last of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council which has not conducted an operational ballistic missile submarine patrol, because of institutional problems. It operates

8932-465: The Persians in a channel too narrow for them to bring their greater numbers to bear, and attacked them vigorously, in the end causing the loss of 200 Persian ships vs 40 Greek. Aeschylus wrote a play about the defeat, The Persians , which was performed in a Greek theatre competition a few years after the battle. It is the oldest known surviving play. At the end, Xerxes still had a fleet stronger than

9048-586: The Philippines each also claiming a significant part of the South China Sea . Some exercises and patrols of the PLAN in recent years went as close as the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Japan, Taiwan, and Alaska although undisputed territorial waters have been not been crossed except in cases of innocent passage . As of 2024, the PLAN is the second-largest navy in the world by total displacement tonnage — at 2 million tons in 2024, behind only

9164-511: The Song imperial court fled south from Kaifeng to Hangzhou . Equipped with the magnetic compass and knowledge of Shen Kuo 's famous treatise (on the concept of true north ), the Chinese became proficient experts of navigation in their day. They raised their naval strength from a mere 11 squadrons of 3,000 marines to 20 squadrons of 52,000 marines in a century's time. Employing paddle wheel crafts and trebuchets throwing gunpowder bombs from

9280-615: The USN's operations in Asia. Chinese naval capability increased substantially in the 2010s and 2020s. According to the US-based think tank RAND Corporation , PLAN enjoyed major advantages in terms of naval technologies, missiles, and tonnage against regional rivals such as Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and India. The PLAN is organized into several departments for purposes of command, control and coordination. Main operating forces are organized into fleets, each with its own headquarters,

9396-681: The United States, according to the Alliance for American Manufacturing ) have led the Office of Naval Intelligence to project that China will have 475 battle force ships by 2035 while the USN will have 305 to 317, which would put the United States in a numerical and operational disadvantage especially in the West Pacific according to a chair naval strategy professor at the Naval War College . The PLAN traces its lineage to units of

9512-505: The Vikings, only two of which were not beaten back or captured. The Vikings also fought several sea battles among themselves. This was normally done by binding the ships on each side together, thus essentially fighting a land battle on the sea. However the fact that the losing side could not easily escape meant that battles tended to be hard and bloody. The Battle of Svolder is perhaps the most famous of these battles. As Muslim power in

9628-532: The ages. Pre-recorded history (Homeric Legends, e.g. Troy ), and classical works such as The Odyssey emphasize the sea. The Persian Empire – united and strong – could not prevail against the might of the Athenian fleet combined with that of lesser city states in several attempts to conquer the Greek city states. Phoenicia 's and Egypt 's power, Carthage 's and even Rome 's largely depended upon control of

9744-549: The boat's reinforced prow. The opponent would try to maneuver and avoid contact, or alternately rush all the marines to the side about to be hit, thus tilting the boat. When the ram had withdrawn and the marines dispersed, the hole would then be above the waterline and not a critical injury to the ship. During the next fifty years, the Greeks commanded the Aegean, but not harmoniously. After several minor wars, tensions exploded into

9860-762: The commander-in-chief of the South Sea Fleet. The Luhu -class guided missile destroyer Qingdao and the replenishment oiler Taicang completed the PLA Navy's first circumnavigation of the world (pictured) , a 123-day voyage covering 32,000 nautical miles (59,000 km; 37,000 mi) between 15 May – 23 September 2002. Port visits included Changi, Singapore; Alexandria, Egypt ; Aksis , Turkey; Sevastopol, Ukraine ; Piraeus, Greece ; Lisbon , Portugal; Fortaleza, Brazil ; Guayaquil, Ecuador ; Callao, Peru ; and Papeete in French Polynesia . The PLA naval vessels participated in naval exercises with

9976-420: The corresponding volume displaced. To calculate the weight of the displaced water, it is necessary to know its density. Seawater (1,025 kg/m ) is more dense than fresh water (1,000 kg/m ); so a ship will ride higher in salt water than in fresh. The density of water also varies with temperature. Devices akin to slide rules have been available since the 1950s to aid in these calculations. Presently, it

10092-567: The decks of their ships, the Southern Song dynasty became a formidable foe to the Jin dynasty during the 12th–13th centuries during the Jin–Song Wars . There were naval engagements at the Battle of Caishi and Battle of Tangdao . With a powerful navy, China dominated maritime trade throughout South East Asia as well. Until 1279, the Song were able to use their naval power to defend against

10208-629: The destroyer and frigate protection would have been swarmed by almost 900 fast-attack craft . Stormy weather limited the range of these small boats, however, and curtailed air support . Behind the inner ring were Coastal Defense Force personnel operating naval shore batteries of Styx missiles and guns, backed by ground force units deployed in depth. As the 21st century approached, the PLAN began to transition to an off-shore defensive strategy that entailed more out-of-area operations away from its traditional territorial waters. From 1990 to 2002, Jiang Zemin 's military reforms placed particular emphasis on

10324-535: The destruction of the French fleet in a decisive action which allowed the English effective control of the sea lanes and the strategic initiative for much of the war. The Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties of China were involved in several naval affairs over the triple set of polities ruling medieval Korea ( Three Kingdoms of Korea ), along with engaging naval bombardments on the peninsula from Asuka period Yamato Kingdom (Japan). The Tang dynasty aided

10440-544: The development of the modern world in the United Kingdom, America, the Low Countries and northern Germany , because they enabled the bulk movement of goods and raw material , which supported the nascent Industrial Revolution . Prior to 1750, materials largely moved by river barge or sea vessels. Thus armies, with their exorbitant needs for food, ammunition and fodder, were tied to the river valleys throughout

10556-496: The earlier Han dynasty. However, Chinese naval maritime influence would penetrate into the Indian Ocean until the medieval period. The late Middle Ages saw the development of the cogs , caravels and carracks ships capable of surviving the tough conditions of the open ocean, with enough backup systems and crew expertise to make long voyages routine. In addition, they grew from 100 tons to 300 tons displacement, enough to carry cannon as armament and still have space for cargo. One of

10672-638: The eventual invasion of Britain. They wreaked havoc in Northumbria and Mercia and the rest of Anglia before being halted by Wessex. King Alfred the Great of England was able to stay the Viking invasions with a pivotal victory at the Battle of Edington. Alfred defeated Guthrum, establishing the boundaries of Danelaw in an 884 treaty. The effectiveness of Alfred's 'fleet' has been debated; Kenneth Harl has pointed out that as few as eleven ships were sent to combat

10788-564: The expansion of China's capabilities were the 1980 recovery of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the Western Pacific by a twenty-ship fleet, extended naval operations in the South China Sea in 1984 and 1985, and the visit of two naval ships to three South Asian nations in 1985. In 1982 the navy conducted a successful test of an underwater-launched ballistic missile . The navy also had some success in developing

10904-535: The fleet was lost in a storm, but the second, in 490 BC, captured islands in the Aegean Sea before landing on the mainland near Marathon . Attacks by the Greek armies repulsed these. The third Persian campaign in 480 BC, under Xerxes I of Persia , followed the pattern of the second in marching the army via the Hellespont while the fleet paralleled them offshore. Near Artemisium , in the narrow channel between

11020-591: The hull of the ship in order to rip into the hull of another ship while ramming, to stab enemies in the water that had fallen overboard and were swimming, or simply to clear any possible dangerous marine animals in the path of the ship (since the ancient Chinese did believe in sea monsters; see Xu Fu for more info). Qin Shi Huang , the first emperor of the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC), owed much of his success in unifying southern China to naval power, although an official navy

11136-597: The introduction of China's first aircraft carrier , Liaoning , in 2012, the Naval Air Force is conducting carrier-based operations for the first time with the goal of building carrier battle group -focused blue water capabilities. The PLANAF naval air bases include: The PLAN is complemented by paramilitary maritime services such as the China Coast Guard . The Chinese Coast Guard was previously not under an independent command, considered part of

11252-596: The largest ships of the time, the Great Harry , displaced over 1,500 tons. Displacement tonnage The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight . As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle , by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into weight. Traditionally, various measurement rules have been in use, giving various measures in long tons . Today, tonnes are more commonly used. Ship displacement varies by

11368-419: The mainland and Euboea , the Greek fleet held off multiple assaults by the Persians, the Persians breaking through a first line, but then being flanked by the second line of ships. But the defeat on land at Thermopylae forced a Greek withdrawal, and Athens evacuated its population to nearby Salamis Island . The ensuing Battle of Salamis was one of the decisive engagements of history. Themistocles trapped

11484-460: The mid-14th century, the rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang (1328–1398) seized power in the south amongst many other rebel groups. His early success was due to capable officials such as Liu Bowen and Jiao Yu , and their gunpowder weapons (see Huolongjing ). Yet the decisive battle that cemented his success and his founding of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) was the Battle of Lake Poyang , considered one of

11600-459: The number of missile -carrying ships grew from 20 to 200, and the production of larger surface ships , including support ships for oceangoing operations, increased. The Navy also began development of nuclear attack submarines (SSN) and nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN). In the 1980s, under the leadership of Chief Naval Commander Liu Huaqing , the navy developed into a regional naval power, though naval construction continued at

11716-481: The planned conquest in China was canceled by the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi , and the Japanese military retreated from the Korean Peninsula. On their way back to Japan, Yi Sun-sin and Chen Lin attacked the Japanese navy at the Battle of Noryang inflicting heavy damages, but the Chinese top official Deng Zilong and the Korean commander Yi Sun-sin were killed in a Japanese army counterattack. The rest of

11832-408: The sea has largely depended on a fleet's ability to wage sea battles. Throughout most of naval history, naval warfare revolved around two overarching concerns, namely boarding and anti-boarding. It was only in the late 16th century, when gunpowder technology had developed to a considerable extent, that the tactical focus at sea shifted to heavy ordnance. Many sea battles through history also provide

11948-789: The seas. So too did the Venetian Republic dominate Italy's city states, thwart the Ottoman Empire , and dominate commerce on the Silk Road and the Mediterranean in general for centuries. For three centuries, Vikings raided and pillaged far into central Russia and Ukraine , and even to distant Constantinople (both via the Black Sea tributaries, Sicily , and through the Strait of Gibraltar ). Gaining control of

12064-491: The service largely avoided the turmoil affecting the country. Although it paid lip service to Mao and assigned political commissars aboard ships, the Navy continued to train, build, and maintain the fleets as well the coastal defense and aviation arms, as well as in the performance of its mission. In the 1970s, when approximately 20 percent of the defense budget was allocated to naval forces, the Navy grew dramatically. The conventional submarine force increased from 35 to 100 boats,

12180-568: The standard Type 95 assault rifles as well as other small arms and personnel equipment, and a blue/littoral camouflage uniform as standard. The marines are also equipped with amphibious armoured fighting vehicles (including amphibious light tanks such as the Type 63 , assault vehicles such as the ZTD-05 and IFVs such as ZBD-05 ), helicopters , naval artillery , anti-aircraft weapon systems and short range surface-to-air missiles . With

12296-502: The supply ship Weishanhu to the Gulf of Aden to participate in anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia. A team of 16 Chinese Special Forces members from its Marine Corps armed with attack helicopters were on board. Since then, China has maintained a three-ship flotilla of two warships and one supply ship in the Gulf of Aden by assigning ships to the Gulf of Aden on a three monthly basis. Other recent PLAN incidents include

12412-528: The technological achievements of the earlier Song dynasty, the Mongols also employed early cannons upon the decks of their ships. While Song China built its naval strength, the Japanese also had considerable naval prowess. The strength of Japanese naval forces could be seen in the Genpei War , in the large-scale Battle of Dan-no-ura on 25 April 1185. The forces of Minamoto no Yoshitsune were 850 ships strong, while Taira no Munemori had 500 ships. In

12528-727: The upheavals of the late 1950s and 1960s the Navy remained relatively undisturbed. Under the leadership of Minister of National Defense Lin Biao , large investments were made in naval construction during the frugal years immediately after the Great Leap Forward . During the Cultural Revolution , a number of top naval commissars and commanders were purged. Naval forces were used to suppress a revolt in Wuhan in July 1967, but

12644-817: Was also invited to RIMPAC 2016 despite the tension in South China Sea. PRC military expert Yin Zhuo said that due to present weaknesses in the PLAN's ability to replenish their ships at sea, their future aircraft carriers will be forced to operate in pairs. In a TV interview, Zhang Zhaozhong suggest otherwise, saying China is "unlikely to put all her eggs in one basket" and that the navy will likely rotate between carriers rather than deploy them all at once. In 2017, PLAN hospital ship Peace Ark traveled to Djibouti (treating 7,841 Djiboutians), Sierra Leone, Gabon, Republic of Congo (treating 7,508 Congolese), Angola, Mozambique (treating 9,881 Mozambiquans), and Tanzania (treating 6,421 Tanzanians). The PLAN continued its expansion into

12760-723: Was devastating to the ships in the besieging fleet. These were the first of many encounters during the Byzantine-Arab Wars . The Caliphate became the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean Sea from the 7th to 13th centuries, during what is known as the Islamic Golden Age . One of the most significant inventions in medieval naval warfare was the torpedo , invented in Syria by the Arab inventor Hasan al-Rammah in 1275. His torpedo ran on water with

12876-412: Was invited to send ships from their People's Liberation Army Navy; marking not only the first time China participated in a RIMPAC exercise but also the first time China participated in a large-scale United States-led naval drill. On 9 June 2014, China confirmed it would be sending four ships to the exercise, a destroyer, frigate, supply ship, & hospital ship. In April 2016, the People's Republic of China

12992-627: Was not yet established (see Medieval Asia section below). The people of the Zhou dynasty were known to use temporary pontoon bridges for general means of transportation, but it was during the Qin and Han dynasties that large permanent pontoon bridges were assembled and used in warfare (first written account of a pontoon bridge in the West being the oversight of the Greek Mandrocles of Samos in aiding

13108-495: Was only on the fringes of the Empire, in newly gained provinces or defensive missions against barbarian invasion, that the navy still engaged in actual warfare. While the barbarian invasions of the 4th century and later mostly occurred by land, some notable examples of naval conflicts are known. In the late 3rd century, in the reign of Emperor Gallienus , a large raiding party composed by Goths, Gepids and Heruli, launched itself in

13224-760: Was ranked in 1987 as the third largest navy in the world, although naval personnel had comprised only 12 percent of PLA strength. In 1987 the Navy consisted (as it does now) of the naval headquarters in Beijing; three fleet commands – the North Sea Fleet , based at Qingdao , Shandong; the East Sea Fleet , based at Ningbo ; and the South Sea Fleet , based at Zhanjiang , Guangdong – and about 1,000 ships of which only approximately 350 are ocean going. The rest are small patrol or support craft. The 350,000-person Navy included Naval Air Force units of 34,000 men,

13340-458: Was the jong . The jongs were large transport ships which could carry 100–2000 tons of cargo and 50–1000 people, 28.99–88.56 meter in length. The exact number of jong fielded by Majapahit is unknown, but the largest number of jong deployed in an expedition is about 400 jongs, when Majapahit attacked Pasai, in 1350. In this era, even to the 17th century, the Nusantaran naval soldiers fought on

13456-493: Was written in the Han dynasty that the people of the Warring States era had employed chuan ge ships (dagger-axe ships, or halberd ships), thought to be a simple description of ships manned by marines carrying dagger-axe halberds as personal weapons. The 3rd-century writer Zhang Yan asserted that the people of the Warring States period named the boats this way because halberd blades were actually fixed and attached to

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