Did China’s Type 055 Destroyer Just ‘Turn Off’ the USS Benfold During an Engagement?

Chinese state media sources have reported that a foreign warship lost power, propulsion and radar while closely shadowing the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 055 class destroyer Zunyi in the South China Sea. The encounter occurred during routine training, with a Chinese naval officer claiming that the foreign vessel experienced a sudden loss of electrical power while attempting to keep pace with the Chinese ship. The report closely coincides with the loss of power on the U.S. Navy Alreigh Burke class destroyer USS Benfold while conducting routine operations in the region, leaving it without power for four days in the South China Sea. This has raised widespread speculation that the USS Benfold was the warships involved int he engagement with the more modern Chinese warship. 

The U.S. Navy subsequently confirmed that the USS Benfold had to be towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines, where its power was restored on July 30 and repairs were completed in early August. The Navy has not publicly disclosed the precise technical failure within the generator system, and an investigation remains underway to determine what caused the issue. The loss of electrical power affected galley services, toilets, air conditioning and potable water, leaving hundreds of sailors without many of the basic facilities normally available aboard a modern warship. An Arleigh Burke class destroyer is heavily dependent on electrical power for its combat systems, sensors, communications and other equipment, meaning a prolonged generator failure can effectively remove a destroyer from combat operations even if its weapons and sensors remain physically intact.

A Chinese electronic attack to disable one of the U.S. Navy’s most capable destroyers may not be unprecedented. In mid-2024 the U.S. Navy and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy were reported to have engaged in intensive electronic warfare battles in the South China Sea near the Philippines. Electronic warfare engagements reportedly lasted a full twelve hours in the northern Philippines, and as a result American warships “faced an unprecedented crisis—screens full of static and a total loss of GPS signals,” with the fleet withdrawing due to the serious disruption of communication and navigation capabilities. The Navy’s electronic warfare equipment was assessed to be a full generation behind that of China, fuelling significant criticisms domestically. 

Clashes in 2024 highlighted prevailing concerns in the Western world regarding the vast discrepancies in the Chinese and American industrial bases, and in particular their shipbuilding and electronics industries, for the balance of power between the two states. The development of new generations of more capable destroyer in the U.S. has gained greater urgency due primarily to the successes of the Chinese Type 052D and Type 055 class destroyer programs, the latter which is widely assessed to have produced the most capable surface combat ships in the world. Preliminary design work on the DDG(X) next generation destroyer program was initiated only in June 2025, however.