Ankang class ambulance craft is a class of little known naval auxiliary ship currently in service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).[1] The name of this class is after the first unit commissioned, with the exact type still remains unknown, because the only official Chinese governmental information released on these crafts is that they are classified as fast ambulance craft.[1] By Chinese classification, any naval vessel with displacement above a thousand ton is classified as ship / warship, and any naval vessel with displacement less than a thousand ton is classified as a boat / craft. Beiyi 01 class is the only boat / craft in the Chinese navy that is capable of hosting a helicopter, though it only has a landing pad, but not any hangar.[1] A total of five units of this class have been confirmed in active service as of mid-2010s.[1]
Beiyi 01 class series boats in PLAN service are designated by a combination of two Chinese characters followed by three-digit number. The second Chinese character is Yi (医), short for Yi-Liao (医疗), meaning medical care in Chinese, because these ships are classified as crew boats. The first Chinese character denotes which fleet the boat is service with, with East (Dong, 东) for East Sea Fleet, North (Bei, 北) for North Sea Fleet, and South (Nan, 南) for South Sea Fleet. However, the pennant numbers may have changed due to the change of Chinese naval ships naming convention. Specification:[2]
PRC