China plans giant 11,000-ton ship to drill into seabed at depths of 16,400 feet

What happened

Engineers at the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) have completed the design research for a 11,023 tons (10,000-tonne) deep-sea engineering survey ship. Deep-sea research vessels are specially designed floating laboratories that carry out multiple oceanographic activities from a single platform.

Several countries operate these vessels to explore local marine environments, track environmental change, and study its impact on human civilization. China operates one of the largest marine and deep-sea research fleets, surpassing the US, the UK, European countries, and island nations such as Australia and Japan.

A team of engineers, academics, and specialist researchers at CCCC spent the last two years completing the technical research that culminated in the final design of the vessel. This will be a highly precise system necessary for offshore surveying and mapping.