15 years of PLA Navy escort missions in the Gulf of Aden

Exclusive graph charting all 45 missions

A belated happy holiday to all of Beijing Channel readers!

December 26, 2023, marks the 15th anniversary since the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), under authorization from the UN, embarked on the first escort mission in the Gulf of Aden.

Since then, the PLAN has sent over 150 warships and 35000 troops on 45 missions to keep peace in the turbulent waters. According to an official tally, PLAN escorted more than 1600 groups of vessels, totaling more than 7200. Over half of the escorted vessels are non-Chinese.

亚丁湾、索马里海域护航任务成为人民海军成立以来，在海外维护国家战略利益、履行大国责任义务，常态部署时间最长、运用兵力最多、活动范围最广的重大军事实践。

The escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters has become a major military practice since PLAN’s founding to safeguard the strategic interests of the country and fulfill the responsibilities and obligations of a great power overseas, with the longest time of continued deployment, the largest number of troops utilized and the widest scope of activities.

Based on public information, Beijing Channel has created a chart that documents all 45 missions, including information on each mission, participating warships, and their respective achievements.

That’s a lot of information to be squeezed into one chart, and I’ve likely made a mistake somewhere, so if you spot an error please reach out to me and I’ll correct it.

Source of information:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8LeUDHZakv3jsT-ePMT-DQ

Wikipedia

http://www.mod.gov.cn/gfbw/jsxd/16276226.html

http://www.news.cn/20231226/12e1b06ac066436d81a36babe62303fe/c.html

Not sourced in this newsletter but containing more cool photos of the missions:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YaxyPDJZfB3wqIGauff7kw

Beijing Channel interns Ye Rujing and Lin Yaxin contributed to this report.