Type 079-class landing ship

The Type 079-class landing ship (NATO reporting name: Yulian-class) was a class of landing ship medium (LSM) of the People's Liberation Army Navy. There are two subclasses of this type; 079I and 079II.

Background
Design of the Type 079-class took more than two year, lasting from 1971 to 1973, and construction begun in May 1974 at Guangzhou Shipyard International, and lunched on July 22, 1976. Due to the changes of Sino-Vietnamese relations, the end customer became PLAN instead, and the ship entered PLAN service in October, 1976. This class received NATO reporting name Yulian-class. Trials between December 1972 to January 1977 revealed the performance was somewhat satisfactory, but the speed was slow and the ability to operate in bad weather condition is poor. Work immediately begun on redesign named as Type 079II-class, while the first unit subsequently became named as Type 079I.

A total of 31 were built, including the conversion of the sole Type 079I to Type 079II standard. 26 were completed by Guangzhou Shipyard International, and 4 were completed by Xiamen Shipyard. Like its predecessor Type 079I, the Type 079II was also designed by 708th Research Institute. The main difference between 079I and 079II is that the latter is larger, with dimensions increased to 72 m x 13.8 m x 2.6 m respectively, and the displacement is increased to 833 tonnes. More complex machinery was added, which lead to the increase of crew member to 109, more than 3 times of that of the original Type 079I. The speed is also slightly increased to 13 kn. Armament is strengthened by the addition of two BM21 122 mm rocket launchers. Nearly three decades after production ended in 1983, most still remain in Chinese service today, mostly in Chinese navy South Sea Fleet (PLAN SSF), though most of them are delegated to transport duties.

Ships of the class
All have been decommissioned.