On 25 October the PLA-N’s 42nd rotation of a Task Group in the Gulf of Aden commenced operations. The Task Group, from the Northern Fleet, consists of a guided-missile destroyer Huainan, the missile frigate Rizhao and an unnamed replenishment ship. The latter has embarked special-operations soldiers and two helicopters. In their first operation the Rizhao escorted the Panamanian crude oil tanker Emilys In a fifty hour transit of the area.
