Chinese replenishment ship Qinghaihu
Qinghaihu is a replenishment oiler of the People's Liberation Army Navy. Ukraine sold the incomplete ship in 1992 to the People's Republic of China, where it was completed and commissioned in 1996.
In Chinese service, the ship was previously known as Nancang. The ship's class has the NATO reporting name Fusu.
Design
The ship was designed by Central Design Bureau 'IZUMRUD' to the order of Soviet Navy and her main function had been supposed to replenish the Navy's aircraft carriers at sea. The project was assigned a number 15990 and Chief Designer group consisted of I.Bagnenko, G.Starostin, A.Arkhipov, G.Stryapchev. A prototype was chosen - it was US Navy's 'Henry Kaiser'. Taking in account a delivery tight schedule the hull was taken as it is and it was based on the project 1596 product tanker, the first one was delivered and named as 'Comandarm Fedko' to Customers on 31.12.1976. The design work was begun in the second part of the 1980th and the working drawings were handed over to the Kherson Shipyard which assigned to the ship its job order 3801. When the ship construction had begun at the shipyard a group of technical supervision and support was founded. The ship was ready technically up to 78%, was launched, painted, everything was installed. The quality of hull welding was first-class. The superstructure is modified with a deckhouse forward of the bridge and a working area built over the fuel cargo tanks. The stern is sponsoned for the helicopter pad; a small hangar is also installed.There are four fuel and two solid store transfer stations. Refueling may be conducted from the stern.
History
The ship was laid down in January 1989 by the Soviet Union at the Kherson Shipyard as Vladimir Peregudov. The Kherson shipyard designated her as hull no 3801 and Chief builder was M. Cukolenko. Actually, she never been named as 'Vladimir Peregudov', because at the time the Customer abandoned the order and refused to finance her construction. In 1992, China bought the incomplete ship from Ukraine for $10 million and According to Zhang Gang, chief designer of the replenishment oiler, the purchase was made after the Chinese effort to design a new replenishment ship - ultimately the Type 903 replenishment ship - was delayed due to cost; the PLAN requirement was for one large replenishment per fleet, and it only had two Type 905 replenishment oilers.. The Design Bureau 'IZUMRUD' developed a special project to equip the ship accordingly to the Rules for get ready for long towing to China. The ship was sold under the name '3801' and all necessary delivery documentation had the designation. The sale and purchase contract had a clause that all working drawings to be delivered with the ship and a group of Ukrainian designers had to be sent to Dalian to participate in the ship construction.The ship sailed nearly complete to Dalian, China in 1993, and completed by the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company. She was commissioned into the PLAN in 1996 and assigned to the South Sea Fleet.