Popular Mechanics:
Chinese shipyards are reportedly busy constructing what will be the largest destroyers in Asia. The yet-unnamed destroyers, tentatively called the Type 055 class, will be stealthy and packed with firepower. Despite the hype on the internet, it’s unlikely to be a super-ship. Instead, China’s next jump forward will likely have the Chinese Navy merely catching up with the rest of the region.
The first reports of the Type 055 emerged in 2014, when photos of a giant land-based mockup of the ship’s superstructure—particularly the bridge and radar mast—were spotted in Wuhan, China, hundreds of miles from the ocean. The location is the same place where a mockup of China’s first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, was constructed in 2009.
Subsequent reports have fleshed out the Type 055 as a guided missile destroyer 574 feet long with a displacement of 12,000 tons. That would make it the largest destroyer-type ship produced in Asia, exceeding Japan’s Kongo-class destroyers by 2,500 tons.
According to GlobalSecurity.org:
[The 005] would be outfitted with four new types of missiles, including medium-range air defense and antisubmarine missiles, as well as long-range air defense missiles and supersonic long-range anti-ship missiles. The Type 055 destroyers would also brandish long-range land attack cruise missiles and a sea-based missile interceptor
All of this sounds very much like the USS Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers. First constructed in the late 1980s, the Burke class was designed to defend aircraft carriers from waves of Soviet supersonic anti-ship missiles. In addition to fleet defense, the destroyers are also capable of anti-submarine warfare, anti-ship attack, and cruise missile strikes. Lately they have also added ballistic missile defense, through software and hardware upgrades to their Aegis combat systems and the development of the SM-3 missile interceptor.
The Type 055 class will reportedly be armed with a single 130-millimeter deck gun, 128 vertical launch system cells, and two close-in weapon systems for last-ditch missile defense. The ships will also mount four large AESA radars for detecting and tracking aerial threats, similar to the SPY-1D on the Burke class.
