BEIJING, March 1 (Reuters) – China’s navy has launched its first self-propelled floating dock, giving it the flexibility to restore warships removed from the coast, the official People’s Liberation Army Daily mentioned on Tuesday, Beijing’s newest transfer to modernise its navy.

The newspaper mentioned the dock, the Huachuan No. 1, would allow the navy to return broken ships to combating functionality “in very rapid time” and was designed to be despatched into fight zones.

“The ship’s launch marks a further breakthrough in shifting repairs to our military’s large warships from set spots on the coast to mobility far out at sea,” it added, displaying an image of a warship contained in the floating dock.

The use of the dock signifies that ships with minor harm won’t need to be taken out of service, whereas these with extreme harm won’t need to return to a shipyard, the paper mentioned.

The dock can deal with cruisers, destroyers and submarines, however not plane carriers, and deal with waves as much as 2 metres (6.6 ft) excessive, it added.

Beijing has invested billions creating its homegrown weapons trade to help its rising maritime ambitions within the disputed South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

China claims many of the South China Sea, by which greater than $5 trillion in world commerce passes yearly. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.

Beijing has additionally forged a watch in the direction of international markets for its comparatively low-cost know-how. Its complete army funds in 2015 was 886.9 billion yuan ($141.45 billion), up 10 % from a 12 months earlier. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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