(Yicai Global) Sept. 18 -- Construction of China's first mothership specifically designed for the manned submersible 'Jiaolong' has commenced in Wuhan, capital of central china's Hubei province, on Sept. 16, Guangming Daily reported. The research vessel is named 'Shenhai Yihao.'

"The ship is specially developed for 'Jiaolong' as a research ship that can support deep-diving operations. It will significantly increase the number of effective dives to be carried out by the submersible, and enhance its operating efficiency," said Liu Baohua, party secretary at the National Deep-Sea Base Management Center.

Shenhai Yihao measures 90.2 meters in length and 16.8 meters in width, and will have a range of over 14,000 nautical miles. It will be equipped with several laboratories for scientific research and data processing and a 6,000-meter unmanned cable diving operation system.

The ship will be built by Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group. It will be launched from the shipyard on Aug. 31, 2018, and will be delivered in March the following year. The mothership will team up with a renovated Jiaolong to perform deep sea research explorations.

China developed its own manned research submersible, Jiaolong, in 2012, and the underwater vehicle has carried out several deep-sea explorations since then. However, the original mothership, 'Xiangyanghong 09' is too old and not designed for deep-diving operations. It needs to be replaced by a dedicated marine ship to improve Jiaolong's operating efficiency.