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Meet the Type 055 destroyers steering China’s blue-water ambitions as far as Australia
Eight of the stealth vessels are already in service and more are on the way
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Almost a decade has passed since the People’s Liberation Army pulled the trigger on President Xi Jinping’s plans for a massive overhaul of the world’s biggest military. In the sixth of a series on Chinese weapons systems, we look at the country’s guided-missile destroyers.
The blue-water role of China’s newest variety of naval destroyer was on show last week when Type 055 destroyer Zunyi led a small flotilla to conduct live-fire drills in international waters off the Australian east coast, prompting alerts from both Australia and New Zealand.
In October, three Type 055s fanned out across the Pacific on a range of missions. The Xianyang docked in Port Vila, Vanuatu, in the first southern Pacific deployment for the fleet.
Meanwhile in the western Pacific, Xianyang’s sister ship, the Anshan, had just finished taking part in the Joint Sword 2024B exercise around Taiwan, sailing through the sensitive Taiwan Strait as part of the Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group.
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With eyes on China, the Philippines and Japan agree to enhance defence partnership
With eyes on China, the Philippines and Japan agree to enhance defence partnership
In a third corner of the Pacific, the Wuxi was leading a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval fleet in an exercise and joint patrol with Russian warships in the Sea of Japan, or East Sea, and the Sea of Okhotsk.
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