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China Building New Dry Dock At Myanmar Navy Shipyard
China's supply of a submarine to the Myanmar Navy at the end of 2021 has brought the two country's military closeness into focus. But there is another major project which is largely being overlooked. China is building a massive dry dock in the country.
The new 40,000-ton dry dock is bein built in a green-field site just north of the Thilawa Shipyard on the Yangon River. Based on analysis of the building work, the new facility is 150 meters (490 ft) wide overall and over 400 meters(1,300 ft) long. The docks themselves, when finished, will likely be narrower. But the scale is large, much larger than Myanmar Navy's warships.
There will naturally be speculation whether Myanmar is planning larger warships. Currently the largest, the South Korean built UMS Moattama, is only 125m (410 ft) long and 22 m (72 ft) wide. Or even whether Chinese warships will benefit from it in the future.
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The Myanmar as been going trough a steady and impressive expansion over the past 20 years. Many warships. including corvettes and destroyers, have been built locally. They have been outfitted with a range of weapons, including North Korean and Chinese systems.
Myanmar Navy
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There is also a drive to add submarines to the fleet. These haven't been built locally, but two have been supplied by India and China. The Indian one is an ex-Indian Navy KILO Class, and the Chinese one is an ex-PLAN (Chinese Navy) Type-035 Ming Class.
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The work is part of phase 3 of the Myanmar Thilawa Shipyard Expansion. The contractor is China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd, whose characteristic blue roofed huts are visible nearby. Blue roofs are often an indicator of Chinese infrastructure projects around the world. Although many buildings in Myanmar also have blue roofs.
From the Chinese perspective the project will strengthen the position of 'Belt and Road Initiative' in Myanmar. Analysis of Sentinel 1 / 2 satellite imagery shows that work clearing the ground started in November 2019. It was planned to take 72 months, giving an estimated completion date in 2025. However the dry dock itself appears to be progressing quickly.
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