Type 082II Class (Wozang Class) Chinese Mine Countermeasure Vessel

Type 082II mine countermeasure vessel (NATO designation: Wozang-class) is the modern development of the base Type 082. The first unit of the Type 082II-class, named Huoqiu on April 23, 2005, was launched in 2004 and entered Chinese service in June 2005 with pennant number 804. From the design to its completion, it took more than a decade and cost over 600 million Yuan Renminbi. The Chinese industrial and manufacturing capability are finally mature enough to produce minesweepers with components built of fiberglass and steel with low magnetic signature at an acceptable price, but the exact content is unknown due to lack of official governmental sources. Some Chinese internet websites claim that the superstructure is built with fiberglass and the hull was built with low magnetic signature steel, while others claim that the entire boat was built of fiberglass. The second unit with pennant number 818 named Kunshan, entered service in December 2011. Some Chinese internet sources have claimed that this second unit is an all fiberglass construction boat, while the first was fiberglass superstructure mounted on low magnetic signature steel hull, because it took about half a decade for Chinese shipyards to master all fiberglass construction for boats of this size, but as with other claims about this class, all have yet to be verified by official or governmental sources. Built by Qiuxin Shipyard at Shanghai, Type 082II mine countermeasure vessel is known in the West as the Wozang-class.Chinese service. The Pennant number of these units changed to 800's series in 2004 from the original 4400's.