Posted on 10/05/2017 12:25:45 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Chinese state television has broadcast the first clear, overhead view of the Chinese navy’s first Type 055 cruiser. The image confirms what foreign analysts have expected since the new cruiser began taking shape in 2014.
The Type 055 carries no fewer than 122 missiles in vertical cells — any mix of anti-air, anti-ship and land-attack models. That matches the weapons-loadout of the U.S. Navy’s Ticonderoga-class cruisers … and exceeds the armament of every other surface warship in the Pacific region.
The new cruiser could enter service as early as 2018.
The Type 055 — which is an estimate 590 feet long and displaces at least 10,000 tons — represents a new class of warship for the Chinese navy. When Beijing launched its naval rearmament program in the 1990s, it focused on building large numbers of small- and medium-size corvettes, frigates and destroyers.
USS Lake Champlain, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser. U.S. Navy photo
These surface vessels patrol the Chinese coast, sail independently or in small groups to deter pirates in the Indian Ocean or act as escorts for China’s new amphibious assault ships and the country’s — so far — sole aircraft carrier, the refurbished, ex-Russian Liaoning.
Prior to the Type 055, the biggest surface combatant in the Chinese fleet was the 7,500-ton-displacement Type o52D destroyer, six of which were in service and several others fitting out as of October 2017. A Type 052D carries 64 missiles in vertical cells.
For comparison, the U.S. Navy’s 9,600-ton Arleigh Burke-class destroyers boast as many as 96 missile cells. Japan’s Atago-class destroyers, displacing 10,000 tons, also feature 96 cells. The 11,500-ton Russian cruiser Varyag, the biggest vessel in Moscow’s Pacific fleet, carries 120 missiles.
With the Type 055, China has caught up to, or surpassed, the other Pacific powers in terms of sheer seagoing firepower. Per ship. But the Chinese fleet still lags behind the United States and barely exceeds Japan in the overall number of seagoing vertical missile cells, a useful shorthand for naval power.
China’s 39 modern destroyers and frigates — not counting the Type 055 — together can deploy around 1,500 cells. The U.S. Pacific Fleet’s 36 Burkes and 12 Ticonderogas together possess nearly 5,000 missile cells. Japan’s 19 modern destroyers carry around 1,000 cells, combined.
CGI from earlier this year
That’s a lot of VLS cells.
Looks like they’r making good use of the missile tech Bill Clinton sold to them.
I see the Chinese are calling it a Cruiser.
If this were a western ship it would be a "corvette" or some such nonsense to please the handwringers in the legislatures.
"Frigate" sounds less expensive and scary than "Cruiser" or "Battlecruiser".
You shoot one cruise missile and hour later you feel like shooting more.
In before the anti CVN crazies.
Most importantly how easy is it to kill?
sink it or totally wreck its topsides?
Alone, the Japanese Navy could defeat the Chinese Navy.
Fairly quickly.
Did they use harbor freight tools to assemble it?
Yeah, but can they crash into freighters with the accuracy and frequency like ours?
At 10,000 tons, we’d call it a destroyer.
With vertical launch you get egg roll.
At the start of any war you know that the US will have three priorities: one will be to eliminate any known Chinese satellites and air bases in China and around the world. The US Navy will first focus on sinking every Chinese vessel that it can find with a focus on known Chinese missile-capable ships and submarines. After the start of hostilities the lifespan of their aircraft carriers will be measured in minutes, not hours. The ChiComs will be swept from the seas while missiles and bombs destroy any Chinese port facilities, naval yards, and army/air force bases. Their navy will effectively be gone in under 3 days and the Chinese ability to project force outside of China will be neutered.
Couldn’t we have moved our manufacturing to India or the P.I. over the last few decades?
Ya, but could you get a Pinoy to put down the booze long enough to actually work a shift?
All that, and only a single rudder. Go fig.
Looks like a fairly competent design, overall. Huzzah for the new naval arms race!
Why? Well, for one the frenetic development that the Chinese military has gone through. However, there is another metric - what I call the 'FR statements of certainty.' Examples include a FReeper saying Avatar would be a commercial fop when it was first released. As pertains to China, 15 years ago several FReepers would claim that China would never have the capability to cross the 180 km wide Formosa Strait to attack Taiwan. They were absolutely adamant, based on the fact that at the time the Chinese did not have a proper naval mass transport capability. That was 15 years ago.
In ten years the only navy that will be a challenge to China will be the USN, and the gap will be closer than any of us dare believe today.
What kind of mindset do you have? Couldn’t we have moved our manufacturing back here where it belongs? MAGA.
” I truly believe that in another ten years the Japanese navy will not be a match for the Chinese.”
That is as much up to the Japanese as the Chinese.
When WWII started they had the best Navy in the world. It was only because they could not continue to build that they lost the war. We cut them down to a few ships and they couldn’t build more.
We could apply the same principal to the USN. It’s up to us.
It isn’t how many ships they have now, its how many they can crank out in an emergency.
Hi.
It’s not the size of the “member,” that matters, but how you use it that counts.
5.56mm
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