Chinese Navy Gets New Indigenously Built Destroyer
China's navy launched Wednesday its most advanced destroyer, the domestically built 10,000-ton Type 055. Officials told state-run Xinhua news agency that the first ship of its kind entered the water at Shanghai's Jiangnan Shipyard on Wednesday morning.
The news agency said the ship is equipped with the latest air, missile, ship and submarine defense systems. China is believed to be planning a total of four such ships, the Associated Press reported.
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The Type 055 is significantly larger than China's other modern destroyer, the Type 052. The development has come at a time of rising competition with regional rivals like India and Japan. China's increasing show of force at sea has also rankled the United States.
“Type 055 destroyer will greatly enhance PLA Navy's combat capability in the open sea, and ground attack capability, as its higher tonnage will enable it to be more versatile”, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, told the state-run Global Times newspaper Wednesday. The vessel will have to undergo planned testing before it is commissioned into use , reports said.
China was once heavily dependent on foreign military technology. The first Chinese aircraft carrier, Liaoning, was commissioned in 2012, and was bought from Ukraine for $25 million. In April this year, it launched its first indigenously built aircraft carrier, Type 001A. China began the construction of the carrier in 2013 and it is expected to become operational by 2020, reports said, adding more carriers will be produced in the next 5 years. Chinese companies have also developed radio-radar equipment for the ships, as well as certain types of weapons and special equipment for planes.
China is producing warships at a rapid pace as it plans to modernize its navy, which has been taking an increasingly prominent role among the country's armed forces. State media claims that the navy commissioned 18 ships in 2016, including destroyers, corvettes and guided-missile frigates, reports said.
The country has also decided to increase its military spending by about 7 per cent. The announcement was made ahead of the annual National People’s Congress in March. The announcement reveals that the Asian country's defense budget remains smaller than that of the U.S. However, many Chinese observers argue that the real figure could be much higher, BBC reported. China's total spending on defense will account for about 1.3 percent of the country's projected gross domestic product in 2017.
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Apart from emphasizing the modernization of its armed forces, China is also building artificial islands on reefs in waters claimed by other nations in the South China Sea. China has said in the past that it has no intention of militarizing the islands but claims that the developments are necessary for defense purposes.
There have been tussles between U.S. and Chinese ships in the South China Sea. Last year, a Chinese ship seized a U.S. Navy underwater drone off the Philippines, but later agreed to return it. Clashes and stand-offs between Chinese ships and vessels from Vietnam and the Philippines have also been reported in the past.
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