Blue Water Primacy: Chinese Shipyards Launch Fifth Type 055 Class Heavy Destroyer

China’s Jiangnan Changxingdao shipyard near Shanghai has launched the country’s fifth Type 055 Class heavy destroyer, which is set to enter service in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy following sea trials. The warships are widely considered the most capable destroyers in service anywhere in the world today, and deploy the largest and arguably the most sophisticated armaments suite in the world. The platforms build on the success of the lighter Type 052D class - which entered service from 2014 and integrated the same advanced vertical launch systems and similar sensors technologies. The Type 055 boasts a 112 cell Vertical Launch System (VLS) array which can deploy a combination of ten different missile platforms for various operations, including HHQ-9B surface air missiles with advanced terminal stage anti ballistic missile capabilities (similar to the U.S, THAAD system) HQ-26 anti ballistic missiles, and advanced DK-10A Quad packed surface to air missiles, alongside separate HQ-10 multirole long range air defence batteries. This provides Chinese destroyers and their contingents with what is very likely the best protection from air and missile attacks in the world.

The Type 055’s anti ship cruise missiles are several times as fast and as long ranged as their counterparts fielded by American cruisers and destroyers, and including the YJ-18 with a 540km range and Mach 3 terminal speed and the subsonic YJ-100 with a 1000km range. Future weapons set to be fitted onto the Type 055 will only increase its advantages, and include among other things electromagnetic railguns and YJ-XX hypersonic long range cruise missiles - the latter a program closely resembling the Russian Zicron with a speed of around Mach 8 and a range of well over 1000km. This new missile is set to be fitted onto the destroyers by the mid 2020s. The U.S. Navy for its part has yet to deploy an anti ship cruise missile which can exceed Mach 1 speeds, and though numerically superior many of the advantages it once held appear to be fast eroding today.