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Naval Forces News - China

PLAN Conducted Major Naval Drills Involving close to 100 Vessels & Units in South China Sea



Our colleagues from Eastpendulum are reporting that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN or Chinese Navy) conducted large scale naval drills in the South China Sea. The naval exercise involved close to 100 vessels, submarine, aircraft from the PLAN air force and coastal defense (land based) units during 4 days (between July 7 and 11, 2016).



Three Type 056 corvettes simultaneously launching anti-ship missiles



Launch of an HQ-16 surface to air missile from a Type 054A frigate



» Destroyers: Type 052C Lanzhou (hull number 170), Type 052D Hefei (174), Type 052B Guangzhou (168) Type 051C Shenyang (115) and Sovremenyy-class destroyers Ningbo (139).

» Type 054A Frigates Hengyang ( 568 ), Huangshan ( 570 ), Yuncheng ( 571 ), Sanya ( 574 ) and Yueyang ( 575 )

» Luzhou ( 592 ), Chaozhou ( 595 ) and Huizhou ( 596 ) and Type 056A Corvette Suqian ( 504 )

» Type 039 and Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines (SSK)

» J-10AH, J-11BH, JH-7A and Su-30MKK fighters as well as H-6G bombers

» medium-to-long range air defense missile system

» YJ-62 coastal defence units

» The new YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship cruise missile launched from an H-6G

Based on the pictures and videos of the exercise released by the PLAN, several vessels and systems can be identified:» Destroyers: Type 052C Lanzhou (hull number 170),Hefei (174), Type 052B Guangzhou (168) Type 051C Shenyang (115) and Sovremenyy-class destroyers Ningbo (139).» Type 054A Frigates Hengyang (), Huangshan (), Yuncheng (), Sanya () and Yueyang ( Type 056 Corvettes Luzhou (), Chaozhou () and Huizhou () and Type 056A CorvetteType 039 and Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines (SSK)J-10AH, J-11BH, JH-7A and Su-30MKK fighters as well as H-6G bombers HQ-9 medium-to-long range air defense missile systemYJ-62 coastal defence unitsThe newsupersonic anti-ship cruise missile launched from an H-6G

Official Chinese military TV coverage of the exercise