Chinese Invasion Barges Seen In Wild

Flag China I broke the invasion barge story in Naval News on January 10 2025 (article and Youtube explainer). At the time, only satellite imagery was available (at least publicly). Now a short video has emerged showing the barges being exercised on a Chinese beach. The resulting images confirm the earlier analysis; these are invasion barges.

CLICK to Enlarge.

The trials of the grey-hull 'Mobile Landing Pier Barges' are seen demonstrating a landing across a beach near to a major naval base. The beach is mild and is likely chosen for location and as a deliberately less challenging target. In practice the barges are likely to be used on steeper and rocky beaches along the Taiwanese coast.

Chinese Invasion Barges

Curiously the barges are shown being connected end-end, and without the involvement of ferries. This may be purely for training purposes. The barge in the forward position is one of the smallest type, informally referred to as the Type 2. This version does not have cantilever loading ramps at the stern to receive RO-RO ferries. So possibly the Type-2 will be mated with one or other of the larger ones which do have loading ramps. This would make the entire pier around 600-700m long!

Original artwork from initial reporting, Jan 2025. CLICK to Enlarge.

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