Satellite photo of 055s at Dalian, dated 9/29/2017.
Building four of these at once itself sends a strong message to other nation in the region and to the United States.
It is quite the undertaking and something the US has not done (building four of a major combatant at once...and I do not mean having components being built so that they come out in series once a year...I mean having all four of them coming out within a year), as I say, this is something the US has not done since World War II days and the wind down from that huge building program.
Two at once? Oh yes...and the PLAN has done the same thing with other classes.
But building four of these very large and very capable DDGs at one time is sending a strong message that basically says...we can increase our numbers and capabilities very fast if we want to...or feel driven to. It is a message that is not lost on any of these nations like India, the US, Australia, Japan, Korea, etc.
Japan and Korea both have built two at a time in the past...but then on relatively small overall builds of five to six or seven vessels. I expect far more than six or seven Type 055s will be built.
It will be interesting to see if the PLAN continues to build at this rate after these first four come out.
Will they rapidly build up to 16 of these vessels?
They are certainly demonstrating that they have the manufacturing capability to do so.
If they follow that on with a logistical capability to out fit them all together, and then the training capability to man them all together...then that message will resound throughout the Pacific...and IMHO, around the world.
