Photos circulating on Chinese social media platform Weibo over the past week showed a model of the 10-tonne helicopter sitting on the flight deck of a docked Type 054 China Coast Guard (CCG) frigate.
Cranes in the dockyard bore the acronym for Guangzhou-based Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Company, a subsidiary of state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation.
The Z-20 medium-lift helicopter, seen as the Chinese answer to America’s Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, has a longer range and higher capacity than the smaller Z-9 that is usually deployed on coastguard frigates.
Song Zhongping, a military commentator and former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) instructor, said the flight deck of China’s existing Type 054 CCG frigates could not accommodate Z-20 helicopters.
But the newer-generation Type 054B frigate featured a larger flight deck and hangar that could host the Z-20, he said, adding that Type 054B frigates, also known as the Type 054AG, would “possibly be soon in service” with the coastguard.
