Chinese Type 055 Destroyer Takes Center Stage in PLA Navy 70th Anniversary Parade

Celebrating the 70th anniversary of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, established in April 1949 over twenty years after the People‘s Liberation Army and six months before the formation of the People’s Republic of China, a parade held in the western port city of Qingdao saw the service’s new Type 055 destroyer take centre stage among the 32 naval vessels which participated. Three Type 055 destroyers were completed in 2018, with at least eight currently planned as the main escorts for upcoming Chinese carrier strike groups alongside the lighter Type 052D class. Displacing 13,000 tons each, the Type 055 is the heaviest and most heavily armed destroyer in the world - surpassing the previous record holder the South Korean Sejeong the Great Class. The warship‘s entry into service represents arguably the greatest technological achievement of the PLA Navy of the decade, and guarantee qualitative parity if  not a considerable advantage if engaging the destroyers of rival powers such as Japan or the United States - which respectively field the third and first largest destroyer fleets in the world.

The Type 055 fields unrivalled firepower with a 112 cell Vertical Launch System (VLS) array, which deploys a combination of ten different missile types including the HQ-26 anti ballistic missile, the advanced DK-10A Quad packed surface to air missiles, and separate HQ-10 multirole long range air defence batteries. The HHQ-9B is also deployed for an air defence role, and fields advanced terminal stage anti ballistic missile capabilities similar to those of the U.S. THAAD platform. The air defence capabilities of the Type 055 and the versatility of their armament in an surface to air role is thus unrivalled. Perhaps the warship’s most valued armament, however, is the YJ-18 anti ship cruise missile - which combines payload, impact speed and range in a way unrivalled by other similar munitions such as the subsonic American Tomahawk. The missile is capable of accelerating to speeds of Mach 3 upon impacting its target, enough to disable most warships with a single direct hit, and has a range of over 500km. The missile type was first deployed by the Type 052D, and provides the Type 055 with a further advantage over rival destroyers currently in service across the world.

Chinese shipyards appear ready and able to complete six new destroyers every year - three of the Type 055 Class and three of the lighter Types 052D Class. These designs continue to be modernised, with plans to equip the Type 055 with electromagnetic railguns and anti satellite weapons previously reported. The unique capacity of Chinese shipyards and sophistication of its naval technologies, many obtained with Russian assistance, provides the PLA Navy with by far the largest growing destroyer fleet in the world - placing it on course to quantitatively surpass the U.S. Navy's own destroyer fleet by the mid 2020s.