Chinese Type 055 Destroyer Gains Air Defence Support From Type 051C in Complementary Formation

New footage released by Chinese state media has shown the People’s Liberation Army Navy Type 055 class destroyer Lhasa operating alongside one of the service’s oldest surface combat ships, the Type 051C class destroyer Shijiazhuang, highlighting how modern multirole and older specialist destroyer types can field highly complementary capabilities. Only two Type 051C class destroyers were built for the Navy, and launched in January 2006 and January 2007, with each integrating the 30N6E1 single-sided rotating phased array radar, and 48 missile launch cells housing Russian S-300FM long range surface-to-air missiles. They thus serve as dedicated air defence destroyers comparable to the British Type 45 class. The Type 055, by contrast, was developed over a decade later, and is a cutting edge multirole destroyer more comparable to U.S., Japanese and South Korea AEGIS destroyers, albeit considerably larger and with a number of technological advantages. 

While the Type 055 class destroyer integrates 112 vertical launch cells, these carry a wide range of missile types including land attack cruise missiles, anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles, and multiple surface-to-air missile types. If operating alone against much larger forces, their multi-layered air defences are potentially vulnerable to being overwhelmed by sheer volumes of enemy aircraft and missiles. Type 051C class ships can thus potentially provide support for air defence duties, lending greater volumes of missiles, while the Type 055’s significantly larger and more advanced sensor suite can be used to share data both to increase situational awareness and to provide targeting data. Type 055 destroyers integrate dual band radar systems similar to the SPY-3/SPY-4, which the U.S. Navy had intended but failed to integrate onto the Zumwalt class destroyer, which provide over the horizon tracking capabilities widely considered the most advanced of any surface combatant in the world. 

Each Type 055 class destroyer integrates four Type 346A active electronically scanned array radars for guidance of long ranged surface-to-air missiles, including 300 kilometre range missiles from its own HHQ-9 system. These can potentially be used to provide significantly superior guidance for Type 051C class ships which are less prone to jamming. The pairing of older specialised air defence destroyers with modern multirole destroyers is far from unprecedented, with the Navy in late January having deployed the Type 052C air defence destroyer Xi'an to accompany the Type 052D destroyer Zibo for operations near Japanese territory at a time of high tensions.

The Type 052C also integrates 48 vertical launch cells, but deploys the newer and more advanced HHQ-9 long range surface-to-air missiles rather than the Russian S-300FM, as well as more modern sensors. It has been widely speculated that the second Type 051C class destroyer, the Shenyang, which is currently under refurbishment, will integrate a single use canister launch system based on that of the Type 052C class, allowing for the integration of the HHQ-9 system to provide more up to date support for air defence duties. Following reports from a number of U.S. sources that China is developing the world’s longest ranged surface-to-air missiles, with the ability to engage targets up to 2000 kilometres away, it has been speculated by a number of analysts that destroyers like the Type 055 class will be the first in the world to field such a capability around the mid-2030s, revolutionising their ability to provide area defence.