An infantry fighting vehicle of a combined arms brigade affiliated with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) 80th Group Army disembarks from a civilian roll-on roll-off passenger ship in a cross-sea transport exercise in waters between the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea in the summer of 2024. Photo: Screenshot from China Central Television

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Army recently practiced cross-sea transport of heavy equipment of a combined arms brigade using a 20,000 ton-class civilian ferry, a ship type experts said on Wednesday could serve as an addition to the PLA Navy’s existing amphibious landing ships.

In a move to explore a new method in civilian-military coordinated long-range transport and boost the troops’ maritime transport capabilities, the PLA 80th Group Army recently conducted a joint exercise to transport a heavy combined arms brigade across the sea in waters between the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea with a roll-on roll-off passenger vessel, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Tuesday.

With surface-to-air alert teams armed and man-portable air defense missile launchers, assault rifles on alert in four directions, main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled howitzers and air defense missile vehicles embarked on the ferry through its bow, the CCTV report showed. Upon arriving at their destination, the alert teams disembarked first for alert duties before the heavy equipment landed on the dock via the ferry’s stern.

The exercise was designed to streamline the transport of equipment of a heavy combined arms brigade, characterized by tracked and heavily armored vehicles, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Wednesday.

It demonstrated that the ferry can transport heavy and powerful equipment across the sea, and honed the troops’ skills in embarking and disembarking the ship, the expert said.

While the PLA Navy has many dedicated landing ships to carry troops in cross-sea operations, they remain limited in number, and the addition of civilian ferries can further boost the PLA’s cross-sea transport capabilities, the expert said.

The ferry involved in the exercise is the Bohai Yuzhu, according to the CCTV report. It has a length of more than 160 meters, width 25 meters and a displacement of more than 20,000 tons, capable of carrying more than 200 vehicles of different kinds, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Overseas media including the UK’s Telegraph speculated that the PLA could use an armada of ferries in a potential “reunification-by-force operation on the island of Taiwan.”

The PLA has overwhelming advantages over the armed forces on the island of Taiwan, and the PLA has many tools in its arsenal, observers said.