Class overview
Operators	People's Liberation Army Navy
General characteristics
Type	Type 792
Draft	3.04 m (10 ft 0 in)
Electronic warfare & decoys	None
Armament	light arms
Armour	None
Aircraft carried	None
Aviation facilities	None

Type 792naval trawler is a Chineseauxiliary ship of thePeople's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), deployed as intelligence gatheringspy ship.^[1] Type 792 and its predecessor Type 8154, along withType 8105 naval trawlers have all receivedNATO reporting nameFT-14 AIT class,^[2][3][4] meaningFishingTrawler - 14AuxiliaryIntelligence-gatheringTrawler.

The origin of the Type 792 navaltrawler can be traced back to the Type 8101 naval trawler, which is one of the follow–on types of theType 8105 naval trawler.^[1] Due to the insufficient speed of Type 801, theChinese navy needed a more powerful ship when performing intelligence gathering missions, and thus selected the 600 horsepower Type 8101fishing trawler that was developed in 1975.^[1][5] Along withType 8105 naval trawler, Type 8101 naval trawler has been produced in higher numbers than their predecessors,^[1][6] and both had been equipped with rudimentaryCOMINT gears in addition to handheld cameras.^[1][7] Specification:^[1][8]

• Speed: 11 kt
• Displacement: 200 ton

BeforeChinese economic reform, it was relatively easy for the PLAN to command private vessels for military use in emergencies when everything was government-owned in aplanned economy, but this has become increasingly difficult to do after the reform due to private ownership. However, PLAN has to keep a very large number of auxiliary minesweepers to prepare for war, and as a result, when Type 8105 and earlier Type 113, Type 801 naval trawlers had retired from their intelligence gathering role, they were converted to auxiliary minesweepers and placed in operational reserve of PLAN.^[9] In addition,environmental problems have caused constant geological/geographical/hydrographical changes in Chinese waters, hence creating huge survey requirement, thus a number of these retired spy ships have also been converted to survey vessels to meet the extremely heavy hydrographic survey requirement.^[10]

In late June 1979, Type 8101 naval trawler along with Type 8105 naval trawler participated in the shadowing former-Soviet aircraft carrier Minsk task force in theSouth China Sea, a mission failed because the slow speed of both types meant that they could not keep up with the targets even when targets were sailing atcruise speed.^[1][6] As a result, both Type 8101 and 8105 have to be deployed in-place onsea lanes to wait for their intended targets to pass, like their predecessors when performing intelligence gathering duties.

Based on the feedback from civilian customers, the developer of the Type 8101trawler greatly enhanced the design to improve the operability in heavy seas, resulting in a faster Type 8154 trawler completed in 1981.^[11] However, deployment in PLAN hands revealed that the 12.2 kt speed is simply too slow to shadow targeted foreign fleet at cruise speed. As a result, those Type 8154 trawlers that entered PLAN service were upgraded with 800 hp to reach a speed of 15.5 kt, and eventually, 960 hp engine to reach 16 kt speed.^[1][12] Some Type 8154 are also equipped with satellite communication antenna for long range missions.^[12] Specification:^[1][11]

• Length: 47 meter
• Beam: 8.2 meter
• Depth: 4 meter
• Draft: 3.04 meter
• Propulsion: 960 hp
• Displacement: 600 ton
• Speed: 16 kt
• Crew: 17

Due to its large size, unlike its retired predecessors that were only converted to hydrographicsurvey vessels and auxiliaryminesweepers, when Type 8154 retired from intelligence gathering missions, it was also converted to auxiliaryminelayers^[9] and ambulance ships^[12] in addition to the usual minesweeper and survey ships.^{[1][12][9][10]} Some of retired Chinese naval Type 8154 trawlers were also transferred toPLA ground force to continue their intelligence gathering mission.^[1][13]

A decade after Type 8154 entered service, its successor Type 792 naval trawler entered the Chinese navy service.^[1] Due to automation, the larger Type 792 requires a lesser crew to man it.^[1][14] Design began in 1983, and passed acceptance certification in 1989.^[15] Unlike its predecessors that begun as afishing trawler and then converted to the naval trawler, Type 792 was sole designed as a naval trawler, to begin with, and it was only later when the fishing version appeared.^[1] Specification:^[11][16]

• Draft: 3.04 meter
• Displacement: 600 ton

In comparison to its predecessors that served their intelligence-gathering role for several decades, some of Type 792 have already been converted to auxiliary minesweepers^[9] and placed in operational reserve relatively early due to the availability of larger spy ships.

PLAN has begun to retire Type 8101 and 8154 from front-line spy missions, and convert them to perform mine warfare and hydrographic survey missions.^[10] Type 792 in active intelligence gathering missions have been identified, but there are also additional units performing mine warfare and hydrographic survey missions.

• Auxiliary ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy

• CS1 Simplified Chinese-language sources (zh-hans)
• CS1 Traditional Chinese-language sources (zh-hant)
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