China’s East Sea Navy Facing Japan to Field Four Type 055 ‘Super Destroyers’ as Two More Enter Service in 2026

Chinese state media has published footage of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s two Type 055 class destroyers operating under the Eastern Theatre Command Navy, otherwise referred to as the East Sea Fleet. Analysts have widely speculated that this may be intended to draw attention to the Type 055’s ability to shape the balance of power at sea in the region, in the expectation that fleet will receive two additional Type 055 class ships in 2026. The footage was published at a time of high tensions with both Japan and the United States. The East Sea Fleet is now the only one of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s three major fleets without aircraft carriers or nuclear powered submarines, reflecting the shorter ranges of required operations in the theatre which are comfortably within range of land-based fighters and diesel electric submarines.

The Eastern Theatre Command Navy currently fields 20 destroyers, including two Type 055 class and 10 Type 052D class ships, and eight older vessels including four Type 052C class air defence class destroyers and four Sovremenny class destroyers. Chinese shipyards are currently producing destroyers at by far the fastest rates in the world, with six to ten destroyers being built per year, including  the commissioning of seven Type 052D class ships into service in 2025. U.S. shipyards, by contrast, have produced destroyers at rates of just 1.6 per year, allowing China’s destroyer fleet to rapidly close the gap in numbers, as shipbuilding shortfalls in the United States have hindered efforts to expand production. Compared to the Type 052D, the Type 055 integrates a much larger and more powerful sensor suite, including a dual band radar system similar to the SPY-3/SPY-4, which the U.S. Navy had intended but failed to integrate onto the Zumwalt class destroyer, providing a particularly high degree of situational awareness including over-the-horizon detection capabilities. The Type 055’s firepower is also considerably greater, with 112 vertical launch cells integrated compared to just 64 on the Type 052D class.

The first Type 055 class destroyer, the Nanchang, was commissioned into service on January 12, 2020, while the last of eight ships in the first production batch was launched on August 30 that year. This eighth ship, the Xianyang was commissioned into service in April 2023. The second batch has consisted of just two destroyers. The deployment of four Type 055 class destroyers under the Eastern Theatre Command Navy would provide one of the most advanced destroyer capabilities of any fleet in the world, with capabilities that are highly complementary to the other warships and aviation assets in the region. A shortcoming of concentrating 40 percent of Type 055 class ships under the command, however, is that there will be less of the ships to serve as escorts for aircraft carriers under the Northern Theatre Command Navy and Southern Theatre Command Navy. 

Type 055 destroyers from the second production batch are speculated to have integrated new turbo-generators, which were reportedly developed by the 704 Research Institute of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation. These would provide significantly greater power levels, potentially better facilitating the integration of directed energy weapons. Chinese state media outlets in December 2025 for the first time published live footage of a YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile in flight following its launch from the Type 055 class destroyer Wuxi, after the new missile was first confirmed to have begun flight testing at sea in April 2022. This provided a revolutionary improvement to the Type 055 class’s already world leading firepower. It remains uncertain whether further batches of Type 055 class ships will enter service, whether a new variant possibly designated the Type 055A will be developed, or whether shipyards will transition to producing a new class of heavy destroyer. The Type 055 class is already widely considered to be the world’s most capable class of surface combatant.