The authors of this report examine how the rapid growth and modernization of China’s navy inform maintenance management and activities, approaches that other navies have taken to balance maintenance demand and supply and how China’s approaches compare with them, how maintenance is controlled and organized to meet maritime-specific requirements, and the factors that shape China’s ability to maintain and sustain its forces.

The People’s Liberation Army Navy’s Approach to Maintenance Management

Cooking Dumplings in a Teapot

Cristina L. Garafola, Joslyn Fleming, Sam Wallace, Bradley Martin, Sale Lilly

ResearchPublished Jun 18, 2026

The ability for navies to procure, field, and sustain large surface combatants is central to modern power projection. The U.S. Navy’s approach to ship procurement coupled with infrastructure issues and workforce shortages at U.S. shipyards have led to significant delays in both naval shipbuilding and maintenance activities. Tensions between high operational demands and the need to conduct training and maintenance to sustain ship readiness levels have resulted in significant mishaps and crashes. The ability of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to sustain its growing inventories of more-capable systems will rely on its logistics capabilities and processes. Understanding the PLAN’s approach to maintenance management is a necessary step in assessing the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to sustain a modernized force, and there are implications for both competition and conflict.

In this report, the authors examine how the rapid growth and modernization of the PLAN inform maintenance management and activities, approaches that other navies have taken to balance maintenance demand and supply and how the PLAN’s approaches compare with them, how maintenance is controlled and organized to meet maritime-specific requirements, and the factors that shape the PLAN’s ability to maintain and sustain its forces.

Key Takeaways

  • The PLAN has moved from iteratively designing and producing small ship classes to series production of larger ship classes. Series production could help streamline maintenance requirements but has stressed the maintenance workforce and associated organizations, such as vessel training centers, which ensure ship deployability.
  • If overhaul rates of newer ship classes remain similar to those for older destroyer classes, then overhauls of China’s most-capable surface combatants will begin in 2031 and last through at least 2042.
  • The PLAN is likely to take a hybrid approach as it continues to replace old force structure, invest in the skill of its maintenance forces, and pursue a repair-focused investment strategy.
  • The PLAN has focused on improving its maintenance self-sufficiency, but organic maintenance units still appear to undertake surface-level maintenance practices and depend on higher maintenance echelons to conduct more-sophisticated repairs. This tendency could be further exacerbated if the PLAN continues to grow its force structure.
  • Although the PLAN has promoted innovative problem-solving and sought to destigmatize mistakes, sources still emphasize dogmatic adherence to standards.
  • Theater-specific demands, such as high operational tempos in the Eastern Theater Command Navy, could shape each Theater Command Navy’s maintenance management and activities.
  • Morale issues might have an impact on retention, particularly for naval units that are shore-based rather than ship-based.

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Garafola, Cristina L., Joslyn Fleming, Sam Wallace, Bradley Martin, and Sale Lilly, The People’s Liberation Army Navy’s Approach to Maintenance Management: Cooking Dumplings in a Teapot. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3368-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the Office of Net Assessment and conducted within the Acquisition and Technology Policy Program of the RAND National Security Research Division.

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