Awarded 1980 Commissioned 1980 Class and type Beituo 715 Launched 1980 Draft 2.2 m | Acquired 1980 Maiden voyage 1980 Length 27 m | |
Beituo 715 class tug is a class of little known naval auxiliary ship currently in service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The name of this class is after the first unit commissioned, with the exact type still remains unknown, and since the commission of the first unit in 1980, a total of seven of this class have been confirmed in active service as of mid-2010s. This class of tug is a single hull and single deck design, with deck covers.
Beituo 715 class series ships in PLAN service are designated by a combination of two Chinese characters followed by three-digit number. The second Chinese character is Tuo (ζ), meaning tug in Chinese, because these ships are classified as tugboats. The first Chinese character denotes which fleet the ship is service with, with East (Dong, δΈ) for East Sea Fleet, North (Bei, ε) for North Sea Fleet, and South (Nan, ε) for South Sea Fleet. However, the pennant numbers may have changed due to the change of Chinese naval ships naming convention.