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| CNS Kunming (DDG-172): Type 052D Luyang III class Destroyer (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Franz-Stefan Gady
Chinese newest guided-missile destroyer is equipped with a deadly load of modern anti-ship missiles.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) commissioned its second Type 052DLuyang III-class destroyer, the Yangsha, IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly reports.
According to IHS Jane’s, the vessel was inducted into the PLAN’s South Sea Fleet in mid-July and will in all likelihood operate out of Yalong Bay naval base on Hainan Island.
The first Type 052D Luyang III-class destroyer, Kunming, was launched in March 2014 and the Yangsha launched in July 2014. However, the vessel was commissioned a full 16 months after the Kunming, “suggesting an extensive program of trials,” according to the article.
All in all, the PLAN plans to build a fleet of 12 Type 052D destroyers–nicknamed “Chinese Aegis”–before shifting production to the newer Type 055D multi-role cruiser.
IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly further notes that “[e]arlier in July, the seventh Type 052D emerged from the building shed at the Jiangnan Changxingdao shipyard in Shanghai and after launch joined the sixth of class currently fitting out. Photographs showing visible progress on the eighth and ninth hulls have also appeared.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat