China’s largest destroyer has simulated confrontation with small ships

Chengguan, a Type 055 stealth guided missile destroyer and China’s largest destroyer screenshot south china morning post

China Central Television (CCTV) on May 15 reported that the ship Chengguan, a stealth guided missile destroyer Type 055 and the largest and most advanced warship of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has conducted a series of exercises with three Type 056A corvettes in the Yellow Sea recently.

According to CCTV, the ships made calls exercise air defense, anti-ship and anti-submarine for 3 days. Several other types of surface warships, submarines, early warning aircraft and helicopters also participated in the exercise simulating combat conditions.

Chengguan, declared combat-ready in January, is the Chinese navy’s second Type 055 warship. With a displacement of 12,000 tons, she is considered the second most powerful destroyer in the world world after the US USS Zumwalt.

Meanwhile, the Type 056A corvette, which has a displacement of 1,440 tons and is capable of anti-submarine warfare, is a version of the Type 056.

CCTV reported that the exercise was held to test the ability to work together between warships in a complex electromagnetic environment.

“Joint exercises between Type 055 and Type 056A can be very complex and challenging because of the participation of many people. technology and new tactics in modern naval warfare”, South China Morning Post quoted Zhou Chenming, a Beijing-based military researcher, as explaining.

China has launched eight Type 055 destroyers between 2017 and 2020 and more than 70 Type 056 and 056A warships in the past decade.

The first Type 055 entered service last year, while the anti-submarine frigate entered service in 2014. Both ships have advanced designs with advanced technologies such as electric warfare systems. death.

An analyst in Taiwan The combined exercise in the Yellow Sea, which combines giant and advanced warships with smaller and relatively inferior ships, may be aimed at simulating encounters with inferior navies.

“It is interesting to put the largest frigate and small corvette together, and I believe the Chinese military has some specific purpose behind this action,” said Lu Li-shih, a former military officer. lecturers at the Taiwan Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, said.

“I think China is trying to use the Type 056A to train the Type 055 in confrontations with other partners in China. East Sea and the East China Sea,” added Mr. Lu,

The exercises in the Yellow Sea took place a few days after the aircraft carrier Liaoning China’s military led a larger-than-usual combat group to exercise in the western Pacific amid rising tensions over Taiwan. The Japanese Defense Ministry said the strike group passed through the Miyako Strait between Miyako Island and Japan’s Okinawa Island on the afternoon of May 2 to enter the western Pacific Ocean before heading south.

The fighter jets and helicopters on board the Liaoning made more than 100 takeoffs and landings in six days near Okinawa last week, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry.