PLA submarine base improves military port support efficiency

August 15, 2011 Zhang Qingzhou, Zhang Chunxiao / PLA Daily – defpro.com

A submarine emergency navigation support drill was conducted at the military port of a submarine base of the North China Sea Fleet under the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in mid-August, 2011. According to Gao Feng, commander of the base, “During this drill, the number of support personnel is reduced by 20% and the duration is shortened by 30% than before, but the emergency support capability of the troop unit is notably improved.”

This base takes the development of reliable and highly efficient wartime support capability as the “lifeline” of the military port construction. In recent years, the base has made innovations and breakthroughs in the support mode, means and ideas centering on the requirements of wartime support. Setting sight on the complexity and ruthlessness of the future battlefield, the base set up a very demanding support environment to temper the troops’ wartime support capability. In the construction of transformer sub-stations, the base gave adequate consideration to the submarines’ special requirements for power supply and adopted a reliable operation mode by using dual power sources to operate at the same time to guarantee the security and quality of power supply. The newly-constructed water softening station covering hundreds of square meters was equipped with double sets of water softening equipment and the standby water softening station was turned into a “safety valve” of water supply.

Currently, should the wharf be destroyed in war, the support detachment of the military port could use mobile support machinery to replenish several submarines, realizing the leap-forward development from the support at one place for one submarine to the support for more than one submarine at varied places.