The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s first Type 055 guided missile destroyer has started its maiden sea trials on Aug. 24.

The ship was launched in June last year at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai and the maiden sea trials came after almost 14 months of outfitting done on the vessel. The warship is the latest addition to the country’s rapidly expanding PLA Navy.

At 180 meters (590 feet) long and displacing over 10,000 tons, Type 055 guided missile destroyers are longer and heavier than the U.S. Navy’s Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers and Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyers, and is more comparable to the former than the latter.

The Type 055 is considered to be a successor of the smaller Type 052D (Luyang III class, Kunming class) guided missile destroyers that forms the backbone of the PLAN fleet. China is still producing Type 052D destroyers.

The ships will be equipped with a 112-cell vertical launching system capable of being armed with new types of air-defense, missile-defense, anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons. It will be also equipped with long-range, land-attack cruise missiles. The firepower of new destroyer is believed to be double that of the Type 052D guided-missile destroyer, currently China’s largest and most powerful surface combatant in service.

The second Type 055 was launched in April 2018 while the third and fourth ships were launched in June 2018.

Chinese Navy is undergoing an ambitious expansion and is projected to have a total of 265-273 warships, submarines and logistics vessels by 2020. China’s naval build-up, and it’s increasingly assertive stance over disputed territory in the South China Sea, has unnerved its neighbors.





