Chinese navy special forces stand on the deck of a navy ship before a Chinese naval fleet sets sail from a port in Zhoushan city of eastern China's Zhejiang Province on July 16, 2009. The Chinese naval fleet set off on Thursday for waters off Somalia for an escort mission against piracy.
The Chinese Navy sent three ships July 16 morning to replace the anti-piracy fleet currently in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia.
The three ships - guided missile frigates Zhoushan and Xuzhou, as well as the large supply vessel Qiandaohu - are under the command of the Navy's East China Sea Fleet based in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. The fleet departed from a naval base near Zhoushan.
Admiral Wu Shengli, commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army Navy, said at the departing ceremony that since starting their mission in late December last year, the Chinese navy fleets have escorted more than 550 Chinese and foreign ships on 78 missions and rescued five foreign ships from pirate attacks.
Rear Admiral Wang Zhiguo, commander of the fleet, told CCTV that with two helicopters and navy special forces aboard, the mission includes over 800 personnel.
The new flotilla will relieve the second batch of Chinese warships from their patrolling mission in Somali waters.
China had dispatched the second navy fleet, comprised of destroyer Shenzhen and frigate Huangshan, in early April to join China's biggest supply ship, Weishanhu, of the first fleet, and replace the destroyers Wuhan and Haikou.
