Plan 870 landing ship

Plan 870 is the design designation for a type of heavy landing ship designed in Menghe. It represents a major improvement over the preceding Plan 858 landing ship, with more than double the vehicle capacity and greatly improved defensive armament.

Development

The Plan 870 design was drawn up during the early 2000s, but development work stopped in 2001 when Menghe and Dayashina signed an agreement resolving the dispute over the Renkaku Islands. Menghean landing ship construction remained frozen until 2005, when renewed tensions with Innominada led to a major expansion of the Menghean Navy's Marine Infantry arm.

Under the MoND's War Plan Blue for conflict with Innominada, the reorganized and expanded Second Marine Infantry Brigade would be tasked with conducting amphibious landings along Innominada's east coast in order to draw forces away from the front line. This mission would require the long-range deployment of mechanized forces and their supplies, a major change in priorities from the short-range, small-island landings on which the Marine Infantry had previously focused.

Carrying configurations

The Plan 870 landing ship can be easily modified at a naval base to carry out a wide variety of missions, depending on the stage of the conflict and the requirements of the operation. This flexibility allows procurement of a single hull to meet multiple needs, though in other configurations the Plan 870 is less effective than a dedicated ship of that type.

Mechanized landing ship

The mechanized landing ship configuration, pictured at the top of the page, is the standard configuration of the Plan 870 design. In this configuration, four landing craft are carried on the upper deck, and two helicopters (sometimes three) are carried in the hangar. The central area of the forward deck is used to store additional vehicles.

Because all armored vehicles in a mechanized Marine Assault Battalion are amphibious, they can drive off the bow ramp while the landing ship is loitering off shore and complete the rest of the journey to land under their own power, without requiring the landing ship to beach itself. Non-amphibious supply trucks, if part of the unit, are carried to shore on the smaller landing craft, which can also carry infantry units. This approach allows greater flexibility in the choice of landing area.

In this configuration, the transport capacity is 36 APCs (BSCh-6) and 500 personnel. This is enough to transport two Marine Mechanized Companies and one Marine Mortar Battery, plus additional infantry or special forces teams which can deploy by boat or helicopter. The third Marine Mechanized Company would move to shore on a separate landing ship, and the logistics on a Plan 852 or 858 type, allowing an entire Marine Assault Battalion to deploy on three landing ships.

Tank landing ship

When a Plan 870 ship is tasked with landing Main Battle Tanks, it must beach directly on the shore, as the 45-ton JCh-5 and 50-ton JCh-6 are non-amphibious and too heavy for the light deck-based landing craft. This restricts the available landing areas to locations with a sufficiently sloped beach. To improve flexibility, the landing craft are removed, and replaced with two large pontoon floats, each held in place by two cranes. These can be lowered into the water alongside the ship and moved into position by the RHIBs further forward, providing a pontoon bridge between the ship and the shore.

In this configuration, the transport capacity is 20 main battle tanks in the 45-50 ton range, arranged in two columns in the hull. The upper vehicle deck is left empty, as the tanks alone bring the vessel close to its maximum weight limit, but helicopters may still be carried, either to deploy detached Marine Infantry units or to support the tanks with rocket and missile fire.

Landing platform helicopter

This configuration leverages as much deck space as possible to carry helicopters. The landing craft are replaced with barges, as on the tank landing ship configuration, and their cranes are angled outward to leave more space on the deck. In addition to the two helicopters in the hangar, a third is carried in the passage between the hangar and the forward deck, and four more are carried on the forward deck. An open portion of the forward deck is used as a second takeoff location. This allows for the carrying of a total of 7 helicopters, or 8 if one is parked on the forward helipad.

Usually, when this configuration is chosen, the internal hold is loaded with cargo and vehicles to support the logistics element of a Marine Infantry Brigade or Battalion, and the landing ship beaches itself after the landing area is secure to deliver supplies. In this configuration, 26 supply trucks can be carried.

Logistics landing ship

Reversing the landing platform helicopter approach, the logistics landing ship configuration leverages as much deck space as possible to carry vehicles and supplies. The landing craft are replaced with barges, as on the tank landing ship configuration, and their cranes are angled outward to leave more space on the deck. The thru-superstructure passage, hangar, and helipad are also used for parking space. This raises the capacity to 60 standard-size vehicles, usually supply trucks of various types, if tie-down points are used. Cargo can also be packed in crates on the deck, using the same tie-down points.

Minelayer

In minelayer configuration, each parking column in the internal section is replaced with two raised rails for sea mines of various types. The dimensions of the internal vehicle deck suggest that approximately 700 mines can be carried. Because upper deck space is not used for mine storage, and because draft is not limited in this role, the ship's helicopters can be loaded with air-deployed mines to assist in mining operations.