China’s Type 076 Drone Carrier Sichuan Completes Trials as Progress in Amphibious Innovation.

China’s first Type 076 amphibious assault ship, Sichuan, has returned to the Hudong Zhonghua yard after a three-day maiden sea trial that validated core electric and propulsion systems, according to Chinese state media. The fast pace and advanced drone-centric design highlight a growing aviation-heavy shift in the PLA Navy that U.S. analysts say could alter planning for any Taiwan scenario.

The Chinese state-owned Xinhua News Agency announced on November 16, 2025, that China’s first Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan returned to Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai after a three-day maiden sea trial. The PLA Navy reported that engineers checked the ship’s electric, propulsion, and other core systems and achieved the desired results, and further trials will follow under the construction plan. The timing is striking, coming less than two weeks after the commissioning of the EM catapult carrier Fujian and signposting a deliberate twin-track flattop build-up.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

China's news Type 076 Sichuan combines a 50,000-ton amphibious platform with an EM catapult-equipped flight deck able to launch fixed-wing drones, operate helicopters and deploy LCACs, giving the PLAN a hybrid drone carrier designed for long-range ISR, precision strike and amphibious assault support (Picture source: Chinese Xinhua News Agency).

The industrial tempo behind Sichuan is as important as the trial itself. The first hull sections went up in October 2023, the ship was launched on 27 December 2024, and within just over a year the yard had moved from initial block assembly to a complex first sea period that included stability and power tests in the East China Sea. Chinese reporting underlines that mooring trials and hardware installation were wrapped up before sailing, allowing the PLA Navy to push directly into at-sea validation of propulsion, power distribution and navigation systems. That cycle time would be extremely hard to replicate in any Western yard and is already being cited in Europe as impossible to match.

Sichuan is closer to a light carrier than a traditional LHD. With a full-load displacement around 50,000 tons, a hull roughly 252.3 meters long and 45 meters abeam, and more than 13,500 square meters of flight deck, it outmasses many legacy fleet carriers. A twin-island layout separates the navigation bridge forward from aviation command and sensor masts aft, while a 116-meter electromagnetic catapult runs along the port edge of the deck, longer than the unit installed in the carrier Fujian. Three arresting-gear sets and two large deck-edge elevators support fixed-wing operations, turning the ship into what Chinese media openly describe as a drone carrier optimized for unmanned air wings.

Below decks, the ship embodies the PLAN’s shift toward integrated electric propulsion. Sichuan uses two 21 MW gas turbines and six 6 MW diesel generators feeding an electric drive that provides both efficient cruising and the huge electrical margin needed for EM catapults, sensors and future high-energy weapons. Its sensor suite closely mirrors that of the latest Type 054B frigates, pairing an E/F-band phased-array radar on the forward mast with an I-band air-search set aft and a dense forest of EW and TACAN antennas. Defensive fit is unusually heavy for an amphibious hull: three 24-cell HQ-10 launchers, three H/PJ-11 30 mm CIWS and multi-tube decoy launchers create a layered close-in shield against missiles and drones. Below the flight deck, a floodable well deck for at least two Type 726A LCACs, vehicle stowage and accommodations for roughly 1,000 marines anchor the more conventional amphibious role.

Where the Type 076 breaks new ground is in unmanned aviation: Chinese outlets and Western analysts expect the ship to operate stealthy GJ-11 UCAVs and long-endurance WZ-7 reconnaissance drones, platforms with roughly 12–14 meter wingspans and internal payloads around two tons, optimized for deep-penetration ISR and precision strike. Recent U.S. and PLA academic work makes clear that such systems are central to Beijing’s concept of intelligentized warfare, in which AI-enabled unmanned platforms provide the sensing backbone and first-wave strike mass for joint campaigns. In that light, Sichuan is less a prestige hull and more a testbed for the large-deck UCAV operations that Chinese planners see as essential over Taiwan and the wider first island chain.

U.S. America-class LHAs and Wasp-class LHDs displace roughly 45,000 and 40,500 tons, respectively and can operate sizable STOVL fighter and helicopter groups, but rely on ski-jump or straight-deck short take-off without catapults. Japan’s Izumo-class, Turkey’s Anadolu and Iran’s converted drone carrier all represent creative adaptations for F-35B or MALE UAVs, yet none integrates a carrier-style EM launch and arrestor system on an amphibious platform. The Type 076 is therefore the first ship globally that blends a large well deck and marine lift with a catapult-equipped, fixed-wing drone flight deck.

For the PLAN, this new class complements rather than replaces its existing amphibious force. China has now commissioned at least four Type 075 LHAs and continues to expand the Type 071 LPD fleet, providing a broad base of helicopter-centric and surface-connector lift. At the strategic level, the U.S.-China Military Power Report assesses that the PLAN already fields more than 370 battle-force ships and is on track to reach about 395 by 2025 and 435 by 2030, with much of the growth in large surface combatants and aviation-capable units. In that context, Sichuan gives Beijing an aviation-heavy amphibious flagship to knit together drones, helicopters, LCACs and escorts into a single, networked landing force.

The Taiwan scenario is where this matters most: analysts describe Sichuan as a key asset for unmanned operations in a high-threat environment, and recent regional reporting underscores that such ships would be central in any Chinese attempt to project power across the Strait, even as Taiwan’s missile defenses make large-deck amphibious movements inherently risky. Operationally, a Type 076 would likely remain 150–300 kilometers offshore, using GJ-11s and other UAVs to help suppress coastal air defenses, hunt mobile launchers, cue long-range anti-ship missiles and provide persistent ISR for Type 055 destroyers and land-based rocket forces. At later phases, its helicopters and LCACs could support follow-on echelons once less exposed lodgments were secured by 075/071 groups, but the ship’s visibility and value would make it a priority target for Taiwanese and potentially U.S. anti-ship weapons. Regional outlets suggest the PLA Navy is working toward a delivery window around the end of 2026, a schedule that will require intensive combat-system integration, aviation trials and crew work-ups.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.