''Lhasa'' (102) is a

Type 055 destroyer The Type 055 destroyer (NATO/ OSD Renhai-class cruiser) is a class of stealth guided-missile destroyers ( guided-missile cruisers per NATO/OSD standard) being constructed for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. It is a multi-mission desi ...

of the People's Liberation Army Navy. She was commissioned on 7 March 2021.

Development and design

The People's Liberation Army Navy was interested in a large destroyer from as early as the late-1960s. A development program, code-named "055", initiated in 1976 was cancelled in 1983 after encountering insurmountable technical obstacles from industrial underdevelopment; for example, the required gas turbine power plants could neither be produced domestically, nor imported at acceptable prices. In April 2014, an image emerged of a full-scale mock-up of the Type 055 superstructure - with enclosed integrated mast for radar and other electronics at the Chinese naval electronic testing range in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

.Caldwell et al.: page 4 The Type 055 is expected to undertake expeditionary missions and form the primary escort for Chinese aircraft carriers. The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

classifies these ships as cruisers. The

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

defines a cruiser as a large multi-mission surface combatant with flagship capabilities; this suggests the U.S. expects the Type 055 to fulfill a similar role as the .

Construction and career

''Lhasa'' was the second ship of the class and laid down and launched on 28 April 2018 at the

Jiangnan Shipyard Jiangnan Shipyard () is a historic shipyard in Shanghai, China. The shipyard has been state-owned since its founding in 1865 and is now operated as Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co. Ltd. Before 2009, the company was south of central Shanghai at ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. On 27 January 2021, she was spotted at

Hainan Island Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly ...

with hull number 102. The ship commissioned on 7 March 2021 and assigned to the North Sea Fleet. Tibetan newspaper ''Lhasa Daily'' reported that Vice Mayor of

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhas ...

travelled to the Qingdao military base to visit the officers and sailors of Lhasa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lasa 2018 ships Ships built in China Type 055 destroyers