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| The China's Type 055 Class Destroyers |
Quoted from Business Insider, China State Shipbuilding Corp. began building its largest ship in 2014 and has been operating since 2020. The destroyer class is also known as the Renhai class cruiser. As a multi-role warship
Quoted from the South China Morning Post, this ship is equipped with weapons to fight missiles, ships, and submarines. The China Daily reported that the Type 055 destroyer is also equipped with railgun technology.
Currently, there are six of them in service, although China's navy says it plans to expand the class to a fleet of 16 ships. Several military experts told the Global Times, China's state media outlet, that the destroyer's role was to prevent foreign intervention if China carried out a military attack on Taiwan. Chinese media called the Type 055 destroyer the second most powerful destroyer in the world after the US USS Zumwalt.
The USS Zumwalt is the largest destroyer in the world, with a displacement of 15,995 metric tons. While China's Type 055 is slightly lighter at 12,000 to 13,000 metric tons. According to SCMP, unlike the American-built USS Zumwalt, which focuses on land attacks, the Type 055 is an amphibious assault ship.
While the USS Zumwalt was billed as a "failed ship concept" after being plagued with equipment problems, the Type 055 has been hailed as the world's most powerful warship due to its long-range firepower. China alone is known to have six ships in the Type 055 class. The first ship in the class, Nanchang (hull number 101), was launched in June 2017 and commissioned in January 2020. Five more have been deployed in active service: Lhasa (102), Anshan (104). ), Wuxi (107), Dalian (105), and Yan'an (106), according to the geopolitical publication SpecialEurasia.
According to SpecialEurasia the ships are part of China's Northern Theater Command, which includes Mongolia, Russian Siberia, and Korea, and Southern Theater Command, which covers the South China Sea and Southeast Asia. According to The Diplomat the large ships are powered by six turbine generators.
The ship uses four gas turbines that produce a total of 150,000 horsepower. They have a cruising speed of 30 knots, or 56 kph. This ship can accommodate more than 300 crew members. The Lhasa, the second ship in the class, was spotted sailing as far as the Sea of Japan in June, the Global Times reported. According to SCMP the ships cost 6 billion Chinese yuan ($920 million) per unit, which makes them significantly cheaper than the USS Zumwalt.
According to Foreign Policy, one Zumwalt unit costs $7 billion or around IDR103 trillion. While the Type 055 is cheaper than its American counterpart, it costs more than other well-known Chinese ships. According to the SCMP, the Chinese navy's Type 054D, once a class of prized warships, costs half as much as the Type 055. According to a 2020 report by the US Naval War College, the Type 055 represents a "major qualitative leap" for China in terms of developing surface combatants. best.
In addition to being equipped with weapons, the Type 055 destroyer has advanced stealth capabilities according to the Global Times. The Type 055 has a dual-band radar system: the Type 346B Dragon Eye. By comparison, the Zumwalt has had a "crippling downgrade" in terms of radar technology, according to the National Interest. In addition to the advanced radar, the Type 055 also has torpedoes and can carry two helicopters: the Harbin Z-9 and the Changhe Z-18.