China’s new mother vessel for the manned deep-sea research submersible Jiaolong will be named Shenhai Yihao (Deep Sea No. 1). Jiaolong, which is undergoing a major maintenance check at the base, will start a global deep-sea scientific exploration mission in 2020. The new vessel, to be delivered around March 2019, will have a displacement of approximately 4,000 tons and be able to travel 12,000 nautical miles per journey. Named after a mythical dragon, Jiaolong reached its deepest depth of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June of 2012. Jiaolong has dived 158 times in the past five years.
CAS news release, May 14, 2018