055 DDG Large Destroyer Thread

[navyreco]

Pictures Showing China's Type 055 Next Gen Destroyer Under Construction in Shanghai

[...]
Larger vessel = more endurance
With a relatively rapid economic development, China's dependence on its maritime supply routes is becoming stronger. The need to protect its vital supply lines and interests overseas (who are now present on almost every continent) becomes paramount. The PLAN will therefore no longer be content to intervene only near its shore lines and on the continental shelf of the country. It now needs to be present where the interests of the country are, and therefore have the ability to fight anywhere in the world, to expand the political will of the Chinese state, protect Chinese nationals and defend its economic interests.

The Type 055 Destroyer is the consequence of this emerging need. For a country like China, which is still lacking overseas supply bases (one is under construction in Djibouti), a larger platform means more endurance at sea. Type 055 are set to have a displacement of 10,000 tons (to be compared with the 7,500 tons full load displacement of the Type 052D destroyer).

The Type 055 guided missile destroyer programme was launched in December 2009, virtually in parallel to the Type 052D programme. Sources close to the local shipbuilding industry and to the PLAN have repeatedly used words like "new thinking", "new concept", "technology leap " and "revolutionary" to describe the ship. Since most of the weapons fit remains similar to the Type 052D, most of that "new technology" likely has to do with the architecture of the combat system, as well as in the electronic, electromagnetic and construction domains. According to a retired PLAN officer, Type 055 combat system is highly integrated and capable of data fusion with sensors belonging to other branches of the military (AWACS and Satellites ?) which represents a leap.

According to Chinese media, the first tranche consist in four vessels (including two built at the Dalian naval shipyard). The unit cost of Type 055 is in excess of 5 Billion Yuan (approx. $750 Million USD). The first keel is rumored to have been layed in December 2014. The first vessel is likely to be launched in early 2017 while delivery to the PLAN should not happen until 2018 at the earliest.

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[AndrewS]

What is the source for the 5 billion Yuan cost of the Type-55?

 

[taxiya]

What is the source for the 5 billion Yuan cost of the Type-55?

Just a joke, if "I" build something like it for 5 billion Yuan, then it must cost the Chinese no less than that number.

 

[Jeff Head]

Here's what I think some of the best depictions of the Type 055 are, wothj a Type 052D thrown in for comparison:













I gotta tell you...the Type 052D is a beautiful, and capable ship.

 

[Blitzo]

checked the GoogleEarth couple of days ago over the HuDong shipyard, and spotted this "big ship", any idea what it is, commercial or combatant?

You know GE has a length measuring tool right? You can use it to estimate the length.

 

[Blitzo]

checked the GoogleEarth couple of days ago over the HuDong shipyard, and spotted this "big ship", any idea what it is, commercial or combatant?

Just did my own measurement of it. 134m long.

It's an 054A. It's a bit blurry but we can see the VLS and the position of other distinctive features of the class from the satellite photo.

 

[Yvrch]

Not sure if this has been posted here before.

 

[Blitzo]

Not sure if this has been posted here before.


View attachment 30967

Interesting photo. Do you know when it was taken?

Because if I had to hazard a guess, it looks like it shows the suspected hull at an early stage of construction than the latest photo in post #1956 and the geometry and position of the hull seems more similar to its earlier state in post #1942.

So I wonder if this photo may be one taken a while ago but only released now.

 

[Yvrch]

Interesting photo. Do you know when it was taken?

Because if I had to hazard a guess, it looks like it shows the suspected hull at an early stage of construction than the latest photo in post #1956 and the geometry and position of the hull seems more similar to its earlier state in post #1942.

So I wonder if this photo may be one taken a while ago but only released now.

If I have to guess, I'd say it was taken in late July early Aug. Navigator Aurora is already out of the fitting basin. This one could be later as # 1956 shows main deck hasn't extended out to the end yet while the 2 lower decks are already there.

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And # 1956 shows Navigator Aurora still in the pan. In this one she is out on the river jetty.

 

[Blitzo]

If I have to guess, I'd say it was taken in late July early Aug. Navigator Aurora is already out of the fitting basin. This one could be later as # 1956 shows main deck hasn't extended out to the end yet while the 2 lower decks are already there.

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And # 1956 shows Navigator Aurora still in the pan. In this one she is out on the river jetty.

Actually, in post #1942 (early/mid July) Navigator Aurora was already out of the fitting basin -- if you look at the first picture in that post, we can see the bow of it sticking from the right. So for some reason after early/mid July it returned into the fitting basin for additional work (which isn't that strange tbh).

edit: actually, I'm going to take that back -- I think that the "Navigator Aurora" in post #1956 is not the Navigator Aurora, but rather one of her more recent sister ships that is currently being fitted out at the time of the picture. The actual Navigator Aurora instead, is present in the pictures in post #1942 and your post #1997, and this is because the Navigator Aurora class ship in those two pictures have fully orange painted "containers" on their decks (not sure what the actual purpose of those containers are, but they're clearly part of the ship) -- whereas the Navigator Aurora class ship in post #1956 has its "containers" still unpainted in black, which makes sense given it is still being fitted out.



As for the "main deck" of the suspected 055 hull, I think you are misinterpreting the geometry of the modules.

For pictures of the hull in post #1942 and your post #1997, what you interpret to be the "main deck" is not the main deck/freeboard deck, but rather an additional two decks above the main deck/freeboard deck which is present near the middle and amidships region of the ship. These decks have an inwards cant above the freeboard deck which is consistent with the inwards cant of surface combatants (including past Chinese surface combatant classes), which is especially obvious in previous photos of the hull under construction.

Now, in post #1956, (which I believe was taken chronologically after the pictures in post #1942 and post #1997), what you describe as the "incomplete" main deck is really the helipad deck/freeboard deck, with part of the additional upper deck levels also seen. In other words, I think what we're seeing in post #1956 is one of the most aft modules of the hull, and the geometry is consistent with a photo of a similarly shaped aft module of the hull seen back in May.

To emphasize this, here is a picture below where I've taken the May picture of the suspected aft hull module, with what I believe is the chronologically most recent photo of the hull from post #1956. In both pictures I've drawn coloured lines to indicate what I believe are the common "levels" of the various edges. In particular, note that the blue line of each is indicative of the helipad deck level, but that level of the helipad deck is also the "true" freeboard deck of the ship.