China Commissions Type 055 Destroyer, its Most Powerful Warship

China inducted its first Type 055 guided-missile destroyer, the Nanchang, to the People’s Liberation Army Navy on Sunday in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province.

The Nanchang, China's first Type 055 guided-missile destroyer, was commissioned in the People's Liberation Army Navy on Sunday morning in the port city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province.

The 10,000 tonne-class destroyer officially debuted at the multinational naval parade in celebration of the Chinese navy's 70th founding anniversary on April 23, 2019.

The commission of Nanchang marks the Navy's leap from the third generation to the fourth generation of destroyers, the Navy said in a statement.

Displacing more than 10,000 tons, the Nanchang is a 180-meter-long, 20-meter-wide vessel with 112 vertical launch missile cells capable of launching missiles such as surface-to-air, anti-ship, land-attack and anti-submarine missiles. The number of vertical launch missile cells is an important indicator of how powerful a warship is. US' Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and US' Ticonderoga-class cruiser have 96 and122 respectively.

The destroyer could reportedly be deployed for anti-ballistic missile operations.

China plans to have a fleet of 8 Type 055 destroyers- while four are already either been built or are under construction, four more are planned to be constructed, state media reported in April last year.