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Gabriel Dominguez

When state television aired footage in July of a Type 052D destroyer launching a YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile it signalled a significant expansion of the Chinese navy’s long-range strike power.
The missile had previously been associated with China’s larger Type 055 destroyers. Showing it fired from a Type 052D – a class the People’s Liberation Army has built in far greater numbers – suggests Beijing may be able to spread the weapon well beyond its much smaller force of Type 055s.
That would boost the number of PLA Navy warships able to threaten US and allied naval forces approaching Taiwan from the western Pacific if a conflict broke out.
The launch highlighted the continuing evolution of one of China’s most important warship classes.
Building on the air-defence capabilities of the preceding Type 052C, the Type 052D – known to the US military as the Luyang III-class – introduced a more flexible missile-launch system. Its vertical-launch capacity increased from 48 to 64 cells, divided equally fore and aft, allowing it to fire a wider range of surface-to-air, anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles.




The July footage showed that the system could cold-launch a YJ-20 – ejecting the missile before engine ignition – from the ship’s forward cells.
Open-source estimates put the YJ-20 at just under 9 metres (29 feet) long and less than 850mm (33 inches) wide, meaning it could fit the deepest version of China’s universal missile-launch cells. It is, however, not publicly known which Type 052D production batches have cells of that depth.
Since the lead ship, the Kunming, entered service in 2014, China has continued building the design while introducing changes to its sensors, aviation facilities, weapons and networking systems.
One of the most visible changes came with a lengthened version of the Type 052D, commonly referred to by analysts as the Type 052DL.
Its flight deck is about 4 metres longer than on earlier ships, a change viewed as a move to better accommodate larger helicopters such as the naval Z-20, alongside smaller types such as the Z-9.
Images circulated in August appeared to show a Z-20F operating from a Type 052DL, potentially the first known example of the helicopter operating from that class of ship.
A further upgraded variant, commonly designated the Type 052DM, has improved sensors, weapons and networking systems. In January, official PLA outlet China Military Online said upgrades aboard the Loudi destroyer had improved its air defence, missile defence, anti-ship and anti-submarine capabilities. Imagery of newer ships also shows a new mast-mounted radar replacing the mechanically scanned radar used on earlier vessels.
Chinese military expert Fu Qianshao told state-run Global Times in January that the new radar was likely to be a dual-face rotating active electronically scanned array, offering significant improvements over the mast-mounted radar on earlier Type 052Ds. The installation also appears visually similar to the radar fitted to China’s Type 054B frigates.
Beyond these technical upgrades, the Type 052D’s strategic importance lies in the scale at which China has built the class.
Open-source counts put the force at about 35 ships, against 10 of the newer Type 055s. While each Type 052D carries fewer vertical-launch cells than the larger Type 055, the class has become a regular escort for China’s growing carrier fleet, providing area air defence against aerial threats, including aircraft and missiles, with long-range surface-to-air weapons such as the HHQ-9 family, backed by shorter-range defensive systems.




Type 052Ds have repeatedly deployed as part of the Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carrier groups, including through the first island chain and into the Philippine Sea. In May 2025 one of the newer ships was tracked by Japan sailing between Okinawa and Miyako into the Philippine Sea.
The following year, the Type 052D Kaifeng joined the Liaoning on a roughly 40-day deployment through the South China Sea and into the Philippine Sea alongside the Type 055 Wuxi, the Type 054B frigate Luohe and the replenishment ship Hulunhu.
Those operational patterns would be especially relevant in a Taiwan contingency, as shown in multiple Taiwan-focused drills by the PLA.
During Joint Sword-2024B, the Type 052D Urumqi operated east of the island alongside the Liaoning and the Type 055 Anshan. In Strait Thunder-2025A, the Type 052D Zhanjiang deployed with the Shandong carrier group during drills around Taiwan.

PLA descriptions of later exercises show the kinds of missions these ships could support in a conflict. During Justice Mission 2025, for instance, the Eastern Theatre Command said its forces practised blockading key ports and areas, gaining control of the battlespace and deterring forces outside the first island chain.
In such a scenario, the size of the Type 052D force could allow the PLA to protect carrier and amphibious groups, escort replenishment ships, support anti-submarine operations and also maintain surface forces on Taiwan’s eastern approaches.
That said, long-range strikes against moving warships would still depend on a wider network of land-, air-, sea- and space-based sensors.
The Pentagon’s 2025 China military report said the PLA’s growing space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance network had dramatically increased its ability to monitor, track and target US and allied forces. It also said land-based sensors, including Skywave over-the-horizon radars, could probably detect ships and aircraft between the first and second island chains.
The report – which primarily assessed developments through 2024 – said the PLA still faced challenges with time-sensitive battle-damage assessment and coordinating complex multiservice strikes.

Beyond those operational hurdles, technical uncertainties remain. Weapons compatibility may differ between production batches, the precise anti-submarine sensor fit is unclear in open sources, and China’s missile-defence claims for newer ships remain unverified.
But the broader trajectory is clear. Since the first Type 052D entered service in 2014, China has kept producing and upgrading the class as the PLA Navy has pushed farther into the western Pacific.
In a conflict over Taiwan, the Type 052D’s importance may therefore lie less in any single weapon than in the combination of capability, adaptability and numbers – potentially giving Beijing enough modern destroyers to support several naval operations at once.


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The warship was used to launch a hypersonic anti-ship missile in July and could be strategically important in a Taiwan contingency


The warship was used to launch a hypersonic anti-ship missile in July and could be strategically important in a Taiwan contingency.


United States

Taiwan

Fu Qianshao

How are China’s Type 052D destroyers shifting the balance in the western Pacific?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The warship was used to launch a hypersonic anti-ship missile in July and could be strategically important in a Taiwan contingency

The warship was used to launch a hypersonic anti-ship missile in July and could be strategically important in a Taiwan contingency