Beiyou 572-class replenishment oiler

The Beiyou 572 class oil tanker is a class of naval auxiliary ship currently in service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).[1] The name of this class is after the first unit commissioned, with the exact type still remains unknown, and a total of four of this class have been confirmed in active service as of mid-2010s.[1]

Class overview
NameBeiyou 572
Operators People's Liberation Army Navy
Completed4
Active4
General characteristics
Class and typeBeiyou 572
Electronic warfare
& decoys
None
ArmamentUnarmed
Aircraft carriedNone
Aviation facilitiesNone

Beiyou 572 class series ships in PLAN service are designated by a combination of two Chinese characters followed by three-digit number. The second Chinese character is You (油), meaning oil in Chinese, because these ships are classified as oil tankers. The first Chinese character denotes which fleet the ship is service with, with East (Dong, 东) for East Sea Fleet, North (Bei, 北) for North Sea Fleet, and South (Nan, 南) for South Sea Fleet. However, the pennant numbers may have changed due to the change of Chinese naval ships naming convention.

Class Pennant # Status Fleet
Beiyou 572 class Bei-You 572 Active North Sea Fleet
Beiyou 572 class Dong-You 633 Active East Sea Fleet
Beiyou 572 class Dong-You 636 Active East Sea Fleet
Beiyou 572 class Nan-You 976 Active South Sea Fleet

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "Beiyou 572 class oil tanker". Retrieved 3 August 2015.