Osprey class submersible
| History | |
|---|---|
 People's Liberation Army Navy
|
|
| Name: | Osprey class submersible |
| Ordered: | 2 |
| Awarded: | 2 |
| Builder: | Wuchang Shipbuilding Factory |
| Sponsored by: | PLAN |
| Completed: | 1988 |
| Acquired: | 1989 |
| Commissioned: | 1989 |
| Maiden voyage: | 1988 |
| In service: | 1989 |
| Fate: | In service |
| Status: | Active |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | submersible |
| Displacement: | 14.18 t |
| Length: | 7.3 m (24 ft) |
| Beam: | 2.7 m (8.9 ft) |
| Draft: | 3.35 m (11.0 ft) |
| Installed power: | batteries |
| Propulsion: | electrical-hydraulic hybird |
| Speed: | 2 kt |
| Endurance: | 72 h |
| Test depth: | 200 m (660 ft) |
| Complement: | 3 |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
sonar & search lights |
Osprey class submersible is a class of submersible of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) specially designed to perform torpedo retrieving missions at test ranges. This class submersible was highly classified when it originally entered service in 1989, and it was not until more than a decade later in the mid of the first decade of the 21st century when it was revealed to the public, when one of the design team members, the deputy general designer Mr. Sun Xin (孙欣), was publicized in a 2006 interview to disclose some characteristics of the submersible. This class is currently consisted of two boats, Osprey 1 (鱼鹰１号, Yu Ying Yi Hao) and Osprey 2 (鱼鹰2号, Yu Ying Er Hao).
In 1969, the 705th Research Institute of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) led a team consisting of more than eighty research establishments and factories had completed No. 750 Deep Water Test Range, which was the main test range for Chinese torpedoes, depth charges and naval mines. However, the test range has serious limitations when the naval weaponry tested sunk to the bottom, because there was no equipment at the time to salvage the test samples at the bottom of the test range. In addition to the financial and economical loss, the more damaging result was that the technical data was unavailable as the weaponry could not be retrieved from the bottom of the test range, thus greatly hindering the development of naval weaponry tested.
To overcome this shortcoming, a submersible that was capable of retrieving the test samples sunk to the bottom of the test range was needed. A joint design team headed by the 710th Research Institute of CISC was tasked to develop such as submersible, and after much debate, a manned submersible was chosen over the unmanned version. Designer would later claim that the success of Osprey class submersible would reaffirm the belief that a manned submersible would be better the unmanned version, when operating in an environment with an average depth of at least a hundred meters.
Though the maximum depth of Osprey class submersible is only two hundred meters, the difficulties faced was much greater than that of designing a regular submarine, because of the unique requirements of the submersible. China had never designed anything similar before, and nearly everything in its design was needed to adopt technologies that were new to China, most which had to be indigenously developed. New methodologies and technologies developed and adopted for Osprey class included:
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