CMSI Note 14: Bridges Over Troubled Waters: Shuiqiao-Class Landing Barges in PLA Navy Amphibious Operations

CMSI’s Perspectives and Key Takeaways The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) Offshore & Defense Engineering Company (COMEC) has developed three specialized self-propelled landing barges that link together to form an 820-meter (2690 foot) composite relocatable pier. In early March 2025, the first set of three barges conducted sea trials and formed a relocatable pier on a beach near Zhanjiang, Guangdong, in southern China. A second, identical set of three landing barges is still under construction in southern China. Analysts have dubbed this class of barge “Shuiqiao” (literally “water bridge” (水桥) in Chinese), tentatively categorizing it as “landing platform utility” (LPU). Based on their function, paint scheme, and lack of Automatic Identification System (AIS) transmissions, the barges are very likely PLA Navy auxiliaries and not civilian vessels. Three types of landing barges with extendable “Bailey bridges” may be classified by their length in meters: Shuiqiao-110, Shuiqiao-135, and Shuiqiao-185 class LPUs. The landing barges are the latest in a series of rapidly evolving capabilities that significantly improve the PLA’s ability to conduct over-the-shore logistics in a Taiwan invasion scenario. While these landing barges help address a critical PLA requirement, they may create additional problems for the PLA in terms of amphibious landing throughput. That is, the potential volume created by the barges may result in challenges moving equipment and materiel out of a landing area in highly restricted and potentially contested terrain on Taiwan. Considering these landing barges in the context of other developments related to amphibious operations suggests the PLA may have significantly advanced its timetable to have sufficient capabilities to conduct a large-scale cross-strait operation against Taiwan in accordance with Xi Jinping’s 2027 centennial military building goal (建军一百年奋斗目标).