Fusu Class Replenishment Ship - HTMS Similan

HTMS Similan

In January, 1993, China received the notification from Thai government, informing the former’s intention to purchase a replenishment ship for its light aircraft carrier fleet. China decided to join the bid, among other western shipbuilders including DCNS, Fincantieri, BAZAN, Hyundai and Dutch Schelde shipyards, and the Chinese design would be very similar to the converted former-Soviet ship, with work on both ships would be performed simultaneously. The original chief designer of the cancelled 2nd generation domestic Chinese replenishment ship, academician Zhang Wende (张文德), who was named as the chief designer and the program manager of the conversion project for the Chinese navy, was also assigned an additional task, as the chief designer of second ship China would be building for export to Thai navy. China managed to beat its western competitors and won the Thai contract.

Work on the ship built for Thai navy went well and the ship was completed on August 12, 1996. Zhang Wende, the chief designer personally stayed on board the ship for twelve days during the voyage to Thailand, gathering information at the very last moment, so that it would help in the future design of the next generation Chinese replenishment ship. Whenever possible, Zhang personally operated the ship, including radars, handling boats the ship carried, and other tasks. The ship was formally accepted to the Thai naval service on September 12, 1996, and was named HTMS Similan (pennant number 187).

HTMS Similan is very similar to its sister ship in Chinese service, except it uses a Chinese hull. The most important difference, however, is in upgrading its replenishment capability. Despite being able to replenish solid supplies, the capability to resupply ammo is still rather limited for the Chinese ship. The Thai ship has further overcome this problem by increasing the ammo resupply capability. Despite the difference between two ships, most of the technologies and components, especially those core technologies for both ships remain the same, and for this reason, China has placed HTMS Similan and the Chinese ship Qinghaihu (青海湖) in the same class. This class would eventually evolve into Fuchi (Qiandaohu) class.