Type 055 Destroyer
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The Type 055 destroyer (
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
/ OSD Renhai-class cruiser) is a
class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...
of stealth
guided-missile destroyer A guided-missile destroyer (DDG) is a destroyer whose primary armament is guided missiles so they can provide anti-aircraft warfare screening for the fleet. The NATO standard designation for these vessels is DDG, while destroyers who have a prim ...
s (
guided-missile cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...
s per NATO/OSD standard) being constructed for the
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
People's Liberation Army Navy. It is a multi-mission design; the combination of sensors and weapons suggests a main role of area air defence, with
anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...
capabilities surpassing previous Chinese surface combatants. 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 territorie ...
classifies these ships as
cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...
s. The United States Navy defines a cruiser as a large multi-mission surface combatant with flag facilities; this suggests the U.S. expects the Type 055 to fulfill a similar role as the .


Development

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, Hubei Province in the China, 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 List of cities in China ...
.Caldwell et al.: page 4 ''
Nanchang Nanchang (, ; ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east ...
'', the first ship of the class, began construction in 2014 at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, and was commissioned on 12 January 2020. Its first public appearance—preceding commissioning—was during the PLAN's 70th-anniversary parade on 23 April 2019. When launched, ''Nanchang'' was among the largest post-
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
warships launched in East Asia.


Design


Stealth

The Type 055 adopts a conventional flared hull with distinctive stealthy features including an enclosed
forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...
that hides mooring points, anchor chains, and other equipment. The bow and main deckhouse are configured similarly to previous Type 052C/ D destroyers. A continuous structure amidship increases internal volume and reduces radar cross-section. The smokestack design reduces both infrared signature and radar cross-section. Chinese sources credit the design as being generally stealthy, with reduced radar, noise,
infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
, and electromagnetic radiation signatures.


Power plants

Propulsive power is generated by four 28 MW QC-280 gas turbines in
combined gas and gas Combined gas turbine and gas turbine (COGAG) is a type of propulsion system for ships using two gas turbines connected to a single propeller shaft. A gearbox and clutches allow either of the turbines to drive the shaft or both of them combined. ...
arrangement. Additional power may be provided by six 5 MW QD-50 gas turbines. The maximum speed is estimated to be 30 knots.


Electronics

Chinese literature suggests that the Type 055 is capable of "facilitat ngcommand management of a battlegroup and supporting elements". The command-and-control and battle management systems are likely comparable to contemporary PLAN systems, which reflect over a decade of intensive interest in information integration from the late 2000s.Caldwell et al.: page 9 The class has a dual-band radar system; four S-band Type 346B Dragon Eye active electronically scanned array (AESA) panels are mounted on the superstructure, and four smaller X-bandCaldwell et al.: page 8 panels are mounted on the mast. The Type 346B panels are estimated to be 40% larger than the
Type 052D destroyer The Type 052D destroyer (NATO/ OSD Luyang III-class destroyer) is a class of guided-missile destroyers in the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. The Type 052D is a larger variant of the Type 052C; the Type 052D uses a canister-type, instead ...
's Type 346A panels, for greater transmission power and sensitivity. Chinese sources claim the radar has anti-stealth capability and can be used to guide anti-satellite missiles. A deployment port exists for variable depth and
towed array sonar A towed array sonar is a system of hydrophones towed behind a submarine or a surface ship on a cable. Trailing the hydrophones behind the vessel, on a cable that can be kilometers long, keeps the array's sensors away from the ship's own noise sou ...
. The large bulbous bow likely contains a bow sonar; the Type 055 may mount a larger bow sonar than previous Chinese surface combatants. Various
electronic warfare support measures In military telecommunications, electronic support (ES) or electronic support measures (ESM) gather intelligence through passive "listening" to electromagnetic radiations of military interest. They are an aspect of electronic warfare involving ac ...
(ESM), electronic countermeasures (ECM), and electro-optic (EO) sensors and datalinks are mounted. They are likely more advanced than those deployed on previous ships.


Armament

The primary armament are
missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...
s carried in 112-cell
vertical launching system A vertical launching system (VLS) is an advanced system for holding and firing missiles on mobile naval platforms, such as surface ships and submarines. Each vertical launch system consists of a number of ''cells'', which can hold one or mor ...
(VLS); 64 cells forward and 48 cells aft. The same VLS model is used on the
Type 052D destroyer The Type 052D destroyer (NATO/ OSD Luyang III-class destroyer) is a class of guided-missile destroyers in the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. The Type 052D is a larger variant of the Type 052C; the Type 052D uses a canister-type, instead ...
, which is believed to be an implementation of the
GJB 5860-2006 GJB 5860-2006 () is a Chinese military technical standard describing a vertical launching system (VLS) for all types of missiles aboard surface combatants. Cells have a square crosssection with sides, and may be , , or deep. Each cell carries on ...
standard; the GJB 5860-2006 is capable of hot and cold launches using concentric canisters. The longest variant, with 9-metre cells, is likely used. The Type 055 is expected to carry
HHQ-9 The HQ-9 () is a long-range semi-active radar homing (SARH) surface-to-air missile (SAM) developed by the People's Republic of China. The naval variant is the HHQ-9 (). Description The HQ-9 is a derivative of the Russian S-300. Justin Bronk d ...
surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
s,
YJ-18 The YJ-18 (, NATO designation CH-SS-NX-13) is a Chinese family of anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles. Description The United States Department of Defense believes the YJ-18 is similar to the Russian 3M-54 Klub, with a subsonic cruise m ...
anti-ship cruise missiles,
CJ-10 The CJ-10 () is a second-generationGormley et al.: p.102 Chinese ground-based land-attack missile.United States Office of the Secretary of Defense: Annual Report To Congress 2015, p.39 It is derived from the Kh-55 missile. It is reportedly manufa ...
land-attack cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...
s, and missile-launched anti-submarine torpedoes upon entering service. Potentially, the larger cells may also carry
anti-ship ballistic missile An anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) is a military ballistic missile system Anti-ship missile, designed to hit a warship at sea. Due to the often hypersonic flight speed of ballistic missiles an ASBM's kinetic energy alone may be sufficient t ...
s.Caldwell et al.: pages 11-12


Future developments

It has been suggested that future variants may be armed with lasers or
electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions o ...
railgun A railgun or rail gun is a linear motor device, typically designed as a weapon, that uses electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles. The projectile normally does not contain explosives, instead relying on the projectile's high ...
s. Since the current design does not have
integrated electric propulsion Integrated electric propulsion (IEP) or full electric propulsion (FEP) or integrated full electric propulsion (IFEP) is an arrangement of marine propulsion systems such that gas turbines or diesel generators or both generate three-phase electr ...
, installation of
integrated electric propulsion Integrated electric propulsion (IEP) or full electric propulsion (FEP) or integrated full electric propulsion (IFEP) is an arrangement of marine propulsion systems such that gas turbines or diesel generators or both generate three-phase electr ...
will be required for the ship to meet power requirements in the future.


Ships of class


See also

*
List of active People's Liberation Army Navy ships The ship types in service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) include aircraft carriers, submarines, (both nuclear and conventional), amphibious transport docks, landing ships, tank, landing ships, medium, destroyers, frigates, ...


References


Citations


Sources

* {{Type 055 destroyer Destroyer classes Cruiser classes Destroyers of the People's Liberation Army Navy