China’s fourth Type 055 destroyer to enter service next month, sources say

Navy is also ready to commission another of the warships in the first half of 2022, with more to follow in the next two years
‘Bodyguard’ for aircraft carriers can also fight alone or lead a small flotilla on the high seas, according to naval expert

China’s military

Minnie Chan

Published: 6:00am, 6 Nov 2021

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China’s fourth Type 055 warship – its most advanced and largest destroyer – is expected to go into service next month, with more to follow in the next two years, according to sources.

The stealth-guided missile destroyer will be the latest addition to a rapidly expanding navy that is now the world’s biggest, and military experts say it will boost combat strength on the high seas.

“The PLA Navy is likely to formally take over the Yanan [the fourth Type 055] in December,” said a source close to the People’s Liberation Army, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

He said a fifth destroyer, named the Anshan, was also ready to commission in the first half of next year.

Images of the ships’ badges – showing pennant number 106 for Yanan and 103 for Anshan – have been circulating online since late last month.

Images of the Anshan (left) and Yanan ship badges have been circulating online since late October. Photo: Handout

Another source, close to the navy, confirmed the timing for the two destroyers to go into service, and said it planned to commission more Type 055 warships in the next two years. Three more are currently being built.

“But commissioning of other destroyers will be determined by how the Covid-19 pandemic develops,” the source, who also declined to be named, said. “The schedule could be changed if the situation gets worse.”

With a displacement of more than 12,000 tonnes, the Type 055 is the second most powerful destroyer after the US Navy’s DDG-1000, or Zumwalt-class stealth ship.

The Zumwalt is bigger, with a displacement of more than 15,000 tonnes, and its stealthy hull design makes it well suited to land attacks.

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That is where the destroyers differ, according to military experts, who say the Type 055 is better equipped and more of a multi-role warship.

At more than 180 metres (590 feet) long and 20 metres (66 feet) wide, it is a fearsome piece of marine and military engineering, equipped with air-defence, anti-missile, anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons.

Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie said the Type 055 activities in last month’s joint exercises between China and Russia indicated that it could take on more roles than the Zumwalt-class destroyer.

“This warship is a bodyguard for China’s aircraft carriers and large amphibious helicopter landing platforms like the Type 075 and, in the future, the Type 076,” Li said. “But it’s also capable of fighting alone, or leading a small flotilla on the high seas.”

01:56

Chinese, Russian warships sail through Japan strait for first time

Nanchang, the first Type 055 to go into service, led a five-ship flotilla for the drills with Russia’s navy in October. Five Russian warships took part.

The drills began in Russia’s Peter the Great Gulf, and the two navies later conducted their first joint passage through the narrow Tsugaru Strait and Izu island chain in the Japanese archipelago en route to the western Pacific. The PLA flotilla sailed to the East China Sea afterwards for more training.

Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, said the Chinese would have “immediately conducted manoeuvres based on sea battle tactics they learned from Russians”.

“This is the best short cut for the PLA Navy to create new training guidelines, based on what the Russians are already doing, and it will help them to build joint operation strike groups – another step towards becoming a real blue-water navy,” Lu said.

Naval expert Li also noted that the Type 055 destroyers were equipped with China’s most advanced integrated electric propulsion system, meaning they can travel up to 10,000 nautical miles – 2½ times further than the navy’s Type 054 multi-role frigate.

“Based on the experience of last month’s China-Russia joint drills, it’s foreseeable that the Type 055 destroyers could start sailing further – to the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf or other unfamiliar waters – in the future,” he said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Fourth Type 055 destroyer about to join PLA fleet