Future Chinese Type 052D Destroyers to Get Upgraded Radars

The three Type 052D guided missiles being built for the Chinese Navy are likely to receive “major upgrades to their radar systems,” state-owned media reported Sunday.

Two Type 052D warships were launched from Dalian Shipyard in Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Friday, and three additional hulls of the same type still under construction in the yard.

This new batch of Type 052D destroyers could receive major upgrades to their radar systems, Wen Wei Po, a pro-Beijing state-owned newspaper based in Hong Kong, reported.

“It is normal that during the serialized production of a type of warship, newer hulls could receive upgrades due to technological advances and user requirements,” a Chinese military expert told the Global Times on Sunday.

In August 2022, foreign media reported that the Dalian Shipyard and the Shanghai-based Jiangnan Changxing Shipyard had restarted mass production of the Type 052D destroyer, after 25 vessels of the same class had entered service with the PLA Navy.

The Type 052D is equipped with an advanced active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system dubbed the "Chinese Aegis" and a 64-cell missile vertical launch system capable of firing munitions including surface-to-air missiles and anti-ship missiles.

Some previous Type 052Ds were already built with new anti-stealth radars, extended helicopter flight decks and upgraded propulsion systems, among other changes, compared with the initial ships, as per media reports.