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IPFS News Link • China

CHINA'S LARGEST SURFACE WARSHIP TAKES SHAPE

• By Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer

In the Jiangnan Changxing shipyards, one of China's largest shipyards, the next generation of Chinese warships is taking shape. The first Type 055 destroyer began construction in 2015 and is expected to have a full displacement of over 14,000 tons. This would make it the largest non-capital surface warship built in Asia since the World War II era Imperial Japanese Tone class cruisers. The Type 055 will be launched in late 2017 or early 2018, making it not just one of the most powerful warships in Asia, but the world.

New photos from the Chinese Internet show a number of interesting developments. The bow (forward) and stern (rear) sections of the Type 055 are already completed; construction begins by building sections of the hull, and then those sections are assembled, like Ikea furniture, in a drydock. The bow section shows a highly hydrodynamic hull, optimized for high speed performance, with stealth characteristics such as angular gunwales (the top edge of the hull sides) and an apparently enclosed deck. The stern, which will have the modules for the Type 055's helicopter twin hangar attached later, has at least four portals for current and potential future sensors and weapons like towed array sonar, variable depth sonar, towed torpedo decoys and active torpedo defenses. This indicates the Type 055 will have a formidable organic anti-submarine capability, perhaps with historic Chinese vulnerabilities to enemy submarines designed in mind.