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