That's alot of armor in the Chinese Type 071 LPD....my fear of facing a fully mechanized Chinese Marine Corps looks to be coming true...

Seems like standard footprint in 071 welldeck for ZBD05 sized AAVs is four to a row... second picture is particularly interesting, with footprints marked out (mix of ZBD/TD05 and ZTS63A). That's a lot of potential AAVs in an 071's  full welldeck+vehicle bay. pic.twitter.com/7cUvF5y1rA

— Rick Joe (@RickJoe_PLART) July 11, 2019

That's a helluva lot of armor in the well deck of that Type 071!  If you believe like I do that its inevitable that US Marines face off against their Chinese counterparts then how do you think our MEU would fare?

I'm not talking about a set piece battle, more like the two sides stumble into a fight during some diplomatic tensions and everyone is doing a "show of force" mission.

We don't know how the Chinese will organize their MEU equivalent.  Will it mirror our own or will they add an additional ship sorta like the Reinforced MEU concept I've talked about?

It doesn't appear that they're going "aviation centric" so will Marine Air make up for the deficit in armor?

Additionally we don't know if this is simply a propaganda pic or if this is truly representative of how they'll operate.

So many questions so few answers.