Recently, China and Russia held the "Maritime Joint-2021" military exercise, which has sparked heated discussions among Chinese and foreign netizens. The exercise focuses on "maintaining the security of strategic maritime channels", with China and Russia mainly conducting courses such as passing through mine threat zones, eliminating floating mines, fleet air defense, sea shooting, joint maneuvering, and joint anti submarine operations. Joint maritime operations between China and Russia have become the norm in recent years. Why has this exercise attracted special attention? In fact, it is related to the Chinese navy's participation in the exercise.

The military force dispatched by the Chinese Navy in this joint maritime exercise between China and Russia demonstrates the normal level of the Chinese Navy: one Type 055 destroyer, one Type 052D missile destroyer, two Type 054A frigates, as well as one large supply ship and one submarine rescue ship. Among them, the Type 055 large destroyer "Nanchang" was the first to participate in overseas participation, which made it the focus of the entire scene as soon as it arrived at the participating sea area. With the issuance of takeoff instructions, the Chinese Nanchang ship's onboard helicopter took off first, followed by the Russian Navy's "Loud" escort ship's onboard helicopter.

During the exercise, Chinese and Russian shipborne helicopters flew over the flight deck of each other's ships for simulated landing. After occupying the shooting position, the main gun officers and soldiers of the Nanchang ship quickly reacted and operated precisely according to instructions. The test hit the target accurately, instantly making the participating Russian warships pale in comparison. Some netizens jokingly say that the combat capability of this destroyer alone has surpassed half of the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet.

As the first domestically developed 10000 ton large drive in China, the 055 has attracted much attention since its inception. It has successively broken through a series of key technologies such as overall design, information integration, and final assembly construction of large warships, equipped with new types of air defense, anti missile, anti-ship, and anti submarine weapons, and has strong information perception, air defense, anti missile, and sea strike capabilities.

In terms of size and power, the 055, as a super warship with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, has formidable firepower. It is equipped with a vertical launch system consisting of more than 100 units, and also uses cold and hot co firing and one missile multiple pit technology. It can simultaneously launch various types of ammunition such as cruise missiles, anti-aircraft missiles, and anti-ship missiles, demonstrating how powerful its firepower is. Due to its significantly larger tonnage than the 052D, the number of vertical launch units in the 055 has increased sharply from 64 to 112. Although lower than the US Ticonderoga class cruisers, the ship adheres to the "one pit, four rounds" design of the 052D series, and its actual attack efficiency is no less than any Aegis warship. Due to its larger hanging device, the 055 can accommodate missiles that are difficult to accommodate with the 052D. In addition, the 055 class can also be equipped with dual hangars and a much larger aviation deck area, which can carry new helicopters such as the sea based Z-20. Therefore, its aviation level is significantly higher than that of the 052D, and its benefits to the fleet's anti submarine capabilities are self-evident.

In terms of naval guns, the H/PJ-45A 130mm/70x caliber naval gun of Type 055 has removed the muzzle brake and adopted a single tube double chain feeding system, with a firing rate of up to 40 rounds per minute, significantly exceeding that of Type 052D, and can change ammunition at any time according to the type of mission. In addition to regular sea to ground ammunition, it can also launch rocket assisted gliding extended range projectiles, and under extreme conditions, it can attack nearly 20 targets with 200 shells in 5 minutes. As early as the 2014 Zhuhai Air Show, China exhibited guided projectiles with a range of 100 kilometers and an error of less than 40 meters. The performance of the 055 projectile is not weak compared to the previous one, and it can also receive positioning assistance from the Beidou satellite.

In terms of electronic warfare, the 055 class inherits the active phased array radar, centimeter wave and millimeter wave phased array radar of the 052D, and has large antennas installed on both the front and rear bridges, which further enhances its fire control and precision detection capabilities. Considering the aerial threat posed by hypothetical opponents, the 055 class is also equipped with a brand new millimeter wave radar, whose performance even exceeds that of the products carried by the US carrier based early warning aircraft, and has certain detection capabilities for stealth fighters such as the F-35. From the overall layout, the multi band radar arrangement of the 055 level has also been optimized, so the detection blind spots that exist on the 052D level are not present on the 055 level.

Due to the 055 class being equipped with a main mast that integrates various system antennas and detectors, it is the first time that major electronic warfare equipment has been integrated into a multi-sensor organic integrated system through an embedded open system. Therefore, the 055 class also has almost some functions of a high-performance land-based radar base. Through effective integration, the ship can also become one of the cores of the four in one operation of land, sea, air, and space, capable of coordinating new unmanned aerial vehicles and stealth fighters, as well as integrating sea based and land-based missiles for precise/saturation attacks. After the naval battle begins, the 055 class can also provide valuable remote signal transmission command in the open sea.

On the other hand, the warships of the Russian Navy participating in this maritime joint military exercise generally focus on anti submarine and anti-ship operations, although they are equipped with advanced vertical launch systems and close range guns in air defense. But their fire control radars are still traditional mechanical scanning methods, with too few tracking and guidance channels, making it difficult to resist saturation attacks from anti-ship missiles and complete regional air defense missions. The deployed troops include the 1155 class large anti submarine ship Admiral Panteleyev, the 20380 class missile frigate HMS Loud, and the Russian hero Ardar Zijianzhapov. The 1155 class large anti submarine ship, Admiral Panteleyev, is a product of the Soviet era. Its anti submarine force mainly consists of eight SS-N-14 "quartz" anti-ship missiles, with a range of only about 55 kilometers, which is already lagging behind the times.

The 20380 class multi-purpose frigate is Russia's first large combat vessel after the Cold War. It is a type of multi-purpose missile frigate similar to China's 056 class, but with a smaller tonnage. Mainly equipped with one A-190M 100mm main gun, eight SS-N-25 Uranus anti-ship missiles, as well as one Kashtan integrated anti-aircraft system and two AK630 close range guns. The air defense weapons consist of 9M96E1/medium range air defense missiles/9M100 short-range air defense missiles, and the firepower is still very fierce. The 20380 level has a certain level of stealth design, which can be considered catching up with the world trend.

In summary, this joint maritime exercise between China and Russia is the first time that the Type 055 missile destroyer has gone abroad to conduct joint military exercises with foreign forces. This provides an opportunity for countries around the world to observe the Type 055 destroyer up close, and also demonstrates the high level of mutual trust between China and Russia. Starting from the Type 055 destroyer, the development of large surface destroyers by the Chinese Navy has finally begun to lead the world. This is the first large destroyer of the Chinese Navy to surpass the active warships of the US Navy, and has a milestone significance in the history of the development of the Chinese Navy.

Source: Military Black Technology