The Chinese navy is now in possession of the largest missile destroyer in Asia and the second-largest in the world, following the commission of the Type 055 destroyer Nanchang on Sunday.
The Nanchang officially joined the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in a Sunday ceremony in Shandong's port city of Qingdao, Xinhua News Agency reported. The advanced warship completed its final testing last year and has been working with the fleet since it was launched in 2017.
“Nanchang made an appearance at the parade as part of the celebration, but much of its equipment – including radars, communications and weapons systems and other works – had not actually been finished,” a PLA insider told the South China Morning Post about the warship's participation in April 2019 celebrations commemorating the 70th anniversary of the PLAN's founding.
The PLA insider told SCMP the timing was carefully chosen to fall after the Taiwanese elections on Saturday, which was “the military's preferred date,” so as not to be seen as attempting to influence them.
NATO calls the Type 055 guided missile destroyers the “Renhai-class” and considers them to be cruisers, not destroyers, since they can perform command functions. Whatever you call it, the warship is highly advanced and very big.
A Stealth-Spotting Missile Platform
Weighing in at 13,000 tons of displacement, the 180-meter-long Type 055 is the largest such warship in Asia and the second-largest in the world after the…
