China’s second Type 055 warship, Lhasa, is combat-ready, state media reports

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China’s second Type 055 warship, Lhasa, is combat-ready, state media reports​

• The stealth guided-missile destroyer has been taking part in drills and is expected to join the navy’s significant missions later this year
• Chinese military has several more Type 055s – its largest and most advanced destroyers – on the way after shipbuilding spree

Published: 9:09pm, 11 Jan, 2022

Lhasa, the Chinese navy’s second Type 055 destroyer, has been taking part in drills since the start of 2022. Photo: Weibo

China’s second Type 055 warship – its largest and most advanced destroyer – is combat-ready, state media reported.

The stealth guided-missile destroyer Lhasa has been conducting a series of drills in the Yellow Sea in the past week to test its operational capabilities, state television said.
Eight days of exercises began with radar detection of a target in undisclosed waters and simulating firing to destroy it, according to the report.

Other training included attacks on maritime targets with missiles and artillery, search and attack on submarines, defence against nuclear, biological and chemical weapon attacks, searching and seizure of suspected civilian ships, personnel rescue and damage control.

“This will contribute to the bolstering of the new ship’s comprehensive ability to fight and accelerate the rapid generation of new-type combat capabilities,” Captain Li Guoqiang, chief of staff at the vessel training centre of the Northern Theatre Command Navy, was quoted as saying.

“We will take advantage of scientific and technological methods to explore new ways of training and set new examples in training with science and tech.”

Named after the Tibetan capital, the vessel was commissioned to the North Sea Fleet last March and is based in Qingdao. Having become fully operational, it is expected to be assigned to the navy’s significant missions later this year, as was the case for its sister ship Nanchang.

Nanchang, the country’s first Type 055 ship, entered service two years ago. It last year took part in a cruise near Alaska, a joint drill in the Sea of Japan and joint patrol around Japan with Russia, and exercises as part of the Liaoning aircraft carrier group.

The Type 055 is regarded as the second-most powerful destroyer after the US Navy’s DDG-1000, or Zumwalt-class stealth ship. While the Zumwalt is focused on land attack, the Type 055, with its 112 vertical launch missile cells, is more of a multirole warship, with balanced air-defence, anti-missile, anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons.

At more than 180 metres (590 feet) long and 20 metres (66 feet) wide and with displacement of 12,000 tonnes, the Type 055 is designed to guard the Chinese aircraft carriers as well as Type 075 amphibious assault ships.

In a shipbuilding spree that has given China the world’s largest navy by number of ships, eight Type 055 large destroyers were launched between 2017 and 2020.

By the end of last year, the third and fourth Type 055 vessels had been delivered. The fifth one is expected to be commissioned in the first half of this year.

China’s second Type 055 warship, Lhasa, ‘is combat-ready’

The stealth guided-missile destroyer has taken part in drills, and the navy has several more Type 055s – its largest and most advanced destroyers – on the way.

www.scmp.com

 

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Bigger Than A U.S. Navy AEGIS Cruiser: China Is Building More Type-055s​

The Type-055 Renhai Class is in many ways the Chinese Navy's (PLAN) answer to the U.S. Navy's AEGIS cruisers. Large and heavily armed, they play a leading role escorting China's aircraft carriers. New intelligence suggests that another batch of these impressive warships is being built.​

H I Sutton 12 Jan 2022

Click to Enlarge. The Chinese Navy (PLAN) Type-055 Renhai Class Cruiser has two large vertical launch systems (VLS). These are larger and deeper than the U.S. Navy's Mk.41 VLS.

With 8 ships already in the water, the Chinese Navy’s Type-055 Renhai Class cruiser is making waves. It is undoubtedly the most impressive surface combatant in the PLAN (Chinese Navy) line-up, making it a natural focus of observers. New intelligence suggests that at least two more are under construction in Dalian, China.


The first Type-055, Nanchang (101), was launched in June 2017. Since then 7 more have been built at Dalian and Shanghai. At 13,000t they are the largest surface combatants currently under construction in the world. This makes then about a quarter bigger again than the U.S. Navy’s AEGIS cruisers.


20 years ago Chinese warships were far behind their Western, and Russian, counterparts. While America was building AEGIS-equipped air defense destroyers, Chinese ships only had short range missiles. Now the Type-055 is, at least in general terms, comparable to the U.S. Navy’s Ticonderoga Class AEGIS cruisers.


The U.S. Navy’s AEGIS Combat System features the powerful AN/SPY-1 passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radar. These are the large phased arrays, arranged four per ship to cover all directions. Combined with high levels of automation and integration, this provides excellent situational awareness. Chinese systems seemed decades out of date.

Two warships have recently started to be assembled in the large dry dock in Dalian. Analysis suggests that these are more likely Type-055 Renhai Class Cruisers rather than the smaller Type-052D Luyang-III Class destroyer.

That started to change in the 2000s with a succession of increasingly modern Chinese ships. These included the Type-052C Luyang-II Class which was seen as China’s answer to the AEGIS destroyer. The Type-052 family quickly became the Type-052D Luyang-III model which boasts the Type-346A phased array radar. Unlike the American AN/SPY-1 this has Active Electronically Scanned Arrays (AESA) instead of Passive (PESA).


The Type-055 has the latest Type-346B version of these system. How it compares, in combat terms, to AEGIS is not public. What is clear however is that the Chinese system is maturing and appears to have been steadily improved. It is thought to provide Chinese commanders with similar levels of awareness.

Heavy Weapons Load​

The advanced radar systems are combined with universal vertical launch systems (VLS) which can carry an array of weapons. Missiles for air defense, anti-submarine and ant-surface warfare. The Type-055’s VLS has fewer cells than the Ticonderoga Class (112 versus 122), but they are larger and deeper. The weapons load-out is actually quite different though. This likely reflects different needs and priorities more than technological capabilities.


The main air defense missiles are at least analogous. The Chinese HHQ-9 missile, heavily influenced by the Russian S-300 system, performs a similar role to the Standard family of missiles. The U.S. Navy ships also carry the ESSM shorter-ranged air defense missile. These can be quad-packed into a single cell of the VLS. These Chinese ships are not thought to have an equivalent missile, although they do have a 24-round HHQ-10 short-range system. Both ships have close-in weapons systems (CIWS).


Similarly, the Chinese Yu-8 anti-submarine missile is generally equivalent to the U.S. Navy’s VL-ASROC.

Differences In Focus​

The Chinese ships place a greater emphasis on anti-surface warfare. For this they can carry the YJ-18 long-ranged supersonic anti-ship missile. These large, modern, missiles contrast with the Harpoons carried by the Ticonderoga Class. A maximum of 8 Harpoons can be carried, but the Chinese ships can carry many more YJ-18s.


Meanwhile the Ticonderoga Class carry the highly successful Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile (LACM). It is unclear whether the Type-055 has a comparable LACM, although possibly the YJ-18 can also perform this role. China now has so many cruise missile types in service that, if the Type-055 doesn’t have a LACM capability, it is down to doctrine.


An even great divergence in weapons is in the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) arena. U.S. AEGIS ships can be equipped with the RIM-161 SM-3 missile which can intercept medium range ballistic missiles. China is not thought to field an equivalent system.


For China’s part, there is an expectation that the Type-055s will receive anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) in the future. This may require some modifications, although the VLS aboard these ships is already quite large.

The Generation Game​

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Chinese and American cruisers is age. The Type-055, in both appearance and design terms, is a generation or more newer. Its angled lines and clean superstructure contrast with the Ticonderoga Classes boxy complexion. We should not judge ships combat effectiveness on looks. But the difference points to the truth that the American ships are getting long in the tooth.


Now approaching 40 years in age, the remaining Ticonderoga Class will start to be decommissioned in the next few years. The current oldest hull, USS Bunker Hill, will be retired next year, its life already extended by several years. These ships will not be replaced by a cruiser design. Instead, they will give way to the latest, and most cable, variants of the Arleigh Burke Class destroyer.


The latest flight-III Arleigh Burke Class destroyers are more modern than the Ticonderoga Class. But they are still a much older base design than the Type-055, going back to the 1980s. They are also still smaller than the Chinese ships, and have fewer VLS cells. This doesn’t necessarily make them worse of course. In many ways it is more similar to the Chinese ship.


The key takeaway is that there is even a discussion on the pros and cons of the relative designs. 20 years ago it was a no-contest. Now Chinese warships are impressive enough to have the conversation.


It remains to be seen whether the latest Type-055s (if that is indeed what we are seeing in Dalian) will be significantly different to the first 8. Possibly with ASBMs, or other new capabilities.

Bigger Than A U.S. Navy AEGIS Cruiser: China Is Building More Type-055s - Naval News

The Type-055 Renhai Class is in many ways the Chinese Navy's (PLAN) answer to the U.S. Navy's AEGIS cruisers. New intelligence suggests that another batch of these impressive warships is being built.

www.navalnews.com