Launch of a new amphibious transport dock by Taiwan.

According to information published by Taiwan News on April 13, 2021, the Taiwanese Navy's new amphibious transport dock, the Yushan, was launched at CSBC Corporation, Taiwan’s shipyard in Kaohsiung.
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New amphibious transport dock Yu shan (Picture source: Taiwanese Ministry of Defence)

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), National Security Council Secretary-General Ku Li-hsiung (顧立雄), Minister of Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正), Navy Commander Liu Chih-pin (劉志斌), and others attended Tuesday morning’s christening and ship-launching ceremony.

Tsai mentioned that she had also attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the nation’s first submarine construction facility at the CSBC shipyard last November. She stated that she was very happy to be in Keelung to oversee the launching of the Yushan and thanked CSBC, the National Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, and the Navy for their hard work.

The president stated that in addition to being the Navy’s first 10,000-ton amphibious transport ship, the Yushan had been designed in accordance with the nation’s defense requirements and can strengthen the Navy's capabilities.

President Tsai said there have been other warships in the Navy’s history named after Yushan, the tallest mountain in Taiwan. Christening the ship with this name continues the tradition and represents the nation’s spirit of determination and overcoming all obstacles, she remarked.

The military and the people need to be united, Tsai said. "As long as we remain united, no matter what difficulties there are, we can overcome them one by one."

The Navy pointed out that in the future, the ship will be responsible for amphibious operations, logistics support for outlying islands, and domestic and international humanitarian rescue missions. The ship is expected to be handed over to the Navy next year.

The vessel – at 153 metres long and 23 metres wide – could carry more than 670 personnel along with landing craft, helicopters, amphibious assault vehicles, and light and heavy utility vehicles. It has a range of up to 11,265km (7,000 miles).

An amphibious transport dock also called a landing platform/dock (LPD), is an amphibious warfare ship, a warship that embarks, transports, and lands elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare missions. Several navies currently operate this kind of ship. The ships are generally designed to transport troops into a war zone by sea, primarily using landing craft, although invariably they also have the capability to operate transport helicopters.