 Once design proved to be successful, more units followed and nearly a dozen ships were eventually built in three different batches.The production span of Type 917 torpedo retriever is over fifteen years long and numerous shipyards were involved in the construction, including Guangxi Guijiang Shipyard (广西桂江造船厂), Fujian Mawei Navy Yard (福建马尾船厂), Shanghai Shenjia (申佳) Shipyard, and Xiamen Shipyard (厦门造船厂).The third batch has propulsion upgrade to MTU 9L2027 diesel engine and increased speed to 15 kt.