Type 076 Sichuan

The world's first amphibious assault ship designed from the keel up as a drone carrier — combining an electromagnetic catapult and arresting gear for fixed-wing UCAVs with a floodable well deck and the capacity to embark over 1,000 marines.

Overview

The Type 076 Sichuan (pennant 51) is a next-generation amphibious assault ship under construction for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Designated the Yulan class by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, it represents a novel warship category: a landing helicopter assault (LHA) platform fused with a catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) system for fixed-wing uncrewed combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs). The single bow electromagnetic catapult, arresting gear, and full-length flight deck — approximately 260 meters long — give it a small-carrier aviation capability, while its stern well dock retains traditional amphibious lift. Analysts at CSIS have documented the ship's unprecedented scale, noting the flight deck alone is larger than that of the U.S. America class and the Japanese Izumo class. No other navy fields a comparable drone-carrier amphibious hybrid.

Development

The Type 076's defining features trace back to mid-2020, when Chinese defense contractors published requests for proposals (RFPs) calling for a ship with 21 MW gas turbines, medium-voltage DC integrated power, a 30-ton elevator, and an electromagnetic CATOBAR system for light aircraft, as outlined on Wikipedia. Construction began by October 2023 at a new dry dock at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding on Shanghai's Changxing Island. By August 2024, CSIS satellite imagery analysis revealed a flight deck measuring approximately 260 meters by 52 meters, twin deck-edge elevators, and a catapult trench around 130 meters long — longer than the system on the carrier Fujian. The ship was officially named Sichuan and launched with a formal ceremony on 27 December 2024, during which Xinhua confirmed the vessel's displacement as "over 40,000 tonnes," its twin-island arrangement, and the presence of its bow electromagnetic catapult and arresting wires, according to USNI News. What follows is an unusually compressed trials timeline: dead-load catapult testing commenced in October 2025, the first sea trial was conducted in November 2025, and a first cross-regional deployment to the South China Sea was announced in April 2026, per The Aviationist. Multiple analysts have noted the pace has outpaced typical PLAN surface combatant programs.

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