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"We often say that models accompany me as I grow up, and engineering research institutes are passed down from generation to generation through models." In 2015, when Mou Liwei just started working, he was 28 years old. He started by helping the chief engineer and deputy chief engineer to implement the work, accumulating and learning while accumulating. Today, Mou Liwei is the chief designer and senior engineer of a ship of the 708th Research Institute of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. "But at the same time, along with my personal growth, I have also witnessed the development of my country's amphibious equipment field."

In 2012, China's largest amphibious ship was an integrated landing ship. Faced with a huge gap with foreign countries, the amphibious warship R&D and design team of the 708th Institute of China Shipbuilding Group successfully broke through a series of "neck-stuck" core key technologies in the national defense and military industry, filling many gaps in the field of domestic equipment. In 2021, the first domestically-made amphibious assault ship, the "Hainan Ship", was delivered and commissioned. Since then, in less than two years, the "Guangxi Ship" and "Anhui Ship" developed and designed by the team have been commissioned one after another, creating an amazing naval speed and forming the "fist power" of naval amphibious operations.

Cross-industry collaboration to overcome difficulties

As an important combat force of the Navy, the amphibious combat force plays an irreplaceable and important role in increasing deterrence and defending national sovereignty and maritime rights and interests. Amphibious assault ships are the core ships of amphibious operations, with functions such as land attack and support, amphibious force projection, and combat command.

In 2012, China's largest amphibious ships were the Kunlunshan, Jinggangshan and Changbaishan landing ships. It can be said that at that time, there was a huge gap between China's amphibious combat capabilities and those of foreign countries.

However, the development of an amphibious assault ship is a complex system engineering project. It is a type of aircraft carrier with a full-length flight deck, capable of carrying aircraft, vehicles, tanks, hovercraft, etc., involving ships, aviation, electronics, land warfare equipment, weapons, information,radar, machinery and other industries, the difficulty and complexity of developing amphibious assault ships are far greater than that of comprehensive landing ships.

The first problem encountered during the research and development process was the lack of design basis. Standard specifications are the "infrastructure" of ship development. The amphibious assault ship has exceeded the coverage of existing specifications in terms of mission systems, main dimensions and ship types. Faced with the problem of lack of "infrastructure", the research and development team carried out a lot of research, simulation calculations and experiments based on previous ship development experience and achievements, and studied and formed the design criteria for aviation support systems, landing support systems, hull structures and hydraulic systems.

Mou Liwei told reporters: "We were crossing the river by feeling the stones at the time, and we found the design basis while doing it based on the experience accumulated in the past. Through a large number of experimental simulations, we released the risk points that appeared, and then further verified them through actual ship tests, forming a closed loop for the standards and specifications during design and development. Finally, the standards and specifications were solidified to form the standard specifications of the model, which also supported our subsequent design and development of large amphibious ships."

At the same time, the main supporting equipment of the amphibious assault ship exceeds 400 items, among which the ship andCarrier-based aircraftOne of the biggest features and difficulties in the development of amphibious assault ships is the coordinated design and compatible guarantee of dock-based boats and amphibious land warfare equipment. Mou Liwei said: "Because many shipborne equipment are also in the process of updating and iteration, they are developed synchronously with our ships. If we don't grasp the latest situation in time, it will not work if we still work behind closed doors according to the original plan. Therefore, after several rounds of exchanges and explorations, we formed a special coordination office for ships, aircraft, boats and vehicles to provide guidance and management, ensuring the timeliness, smoothness and effectiveness of coordination."

Young team creates naval speed

The project was developed by a young team. They won the 2021 Shanghai May Fourth Medal Group and the 27th China May Fourth Youth Medal Group in 2023. More than 73% of the team members are under 40 years old, and young people played an important role in the development of the project.

Pu Xiaoliang, deputy chief designer and senior engineer of a ship propulsion system who was awarded the title of "Young Expert" by China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, was in charge of the onshore joint debugging test of the power system, which was one of the key links of the project. Pu Xiaoliang told reporters that when the test started, his child had just been born and his family needed him the most. However, in order to ensure that the project went on as planned, he still went to other places to organize the test. "The time connection between the project tests was very tight. Once any test was postponed, the time node of the entire project would be postponed accordingly. In addition, there were many participating units, so it was not easy to coordinate."

At that time, the test involved dozens of test equipment, many test items, many newly developed equipment, and a short test cycle, which made it very difficult to organize and implement. Pu Xiaoliang, as the chief commander of the test site, led the project team to conduct tests during the day, sorted out test data and analyzed test problems at night, and it was often early in the morning when the test plan for the next day was formulated.

Pu Xiaoliang said: "The organization of a large-scale experiment has a division of labor. I am the person in charge of the technical responsibility unit. In addition, there are also units responsible for the support of the test site and the organization and coordination. The heads of our three main leading units are all under 30 years old. The entire experimental process lasted for 6 months, and a total of more than a dozen units and hundreds of people were organized to carry out the experimental work."

Finally, the power system achieved a good result of passing the actual ship long-distance test in one go. Since its delivery, the power system has been flexible in operation and reliable in operation under various working conditions, providing a strong power guarantee for the ship to perform various tasks and has been unanimously praised by the troops.

On April 23, 2021, the first ship "Hainan" was commissioned; on April 21, 2022, the second ship "Guangxi" was commissioned, and on November 10, 2022, the third ship "Anhui" was commissioned. It is hard to imagine that the first ship "Hainan" took only 37 months from the start of construction to delivery, which is a miracle in the history of world warship construction. The second and third ships were delivered within 10 months and 20 months after the delivery of the first ship, respectively, and achieved the first "zero opinion" delivery in the field of amphibious ships, creating an amazing naval speed.

Especially in 2021, the three ships carried out tests and sea trials at the same time. The team organized nearly 100 units and more than 1,000 people to travel to the Bohai Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea, and worked on the ships continuously throughout the year to complete various difficult test projects as planned. During the test, the team successfully completed more than 2,000 moored navigation performance verification test projects and various difficult identification test projects, ensuring the smooth completion of all the tests of the three ships.

Recalling every detail from the initial construction to the delivery, Mou Liwei said, "In fact, during the construction of the first ship, we found that the design team and the troops did not have completely consistent ideas and thoughts. It can even be said that there were doubts between the two sides during the communication process. We thought about the problem from the user's perspective, communicated continuously to fully resolve the concerns of all parties, and gradually gained recognition in the process of solving the problem. So after the optimization and iteration of the first two ships, the third ship was delivered with 'zero opinions'."

Through the research and development of this project, the 708th Institute has forged a team of scientific and technological personnel who are proud to undertake major national projects and promote the strategic transformation of the Navy. At present, the team has undertaken three national key projects, published more than 150 professional papers in recent years, and obtained more than 160 invention patents; won two National Science and Technology Progress Awards and more than ten China Shipbuilding Group Science and Technology Progress Awards. Among the team members, one was selected as a leading talent in Shanghai and two were selected as outstanding young talents of China Shipbuilding Group.