055 DDG Large Destroyer Thread
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Jura The idiot
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ça va Labrador
The 055 to the right is the one undergoing sea trials, right?A bit bigger...
(2560 x 1440)
by78
General
It would appear so.
Absolutely. The USN is increasing it's passage through the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. We have already seen their comrades France and Britain joining them for a few times in the past 1,5 year. China is growing economically and technologically that will only increase hostility from the Western block that wants to keep their global hegemony about the deplorables intact. China need a lot Type 055's to defend it's interests.
China can't stop the US from passing through the Taiwan Straits, legally I must add, no matter how much Type 055 they build. Britain and French "FONOP" never comes close enough to disputed islands like the US does, approaching but still keeping their distance, and their actions actually only serve to somehow enforce China's defacto claim. Obviously Britain, France, and Australia too wants to support the US alliance and the principle of free navigation but doesn't want to offend China.
But all these activities by these countries help feed to convince the Politburo for an ever bigger and stronger Chinese Navy, which more more ships, more Type 055, carriers, subs, etc,. Simply because of the impression of threat. The Western nations play their part in building an even bigger Chinese Navy by convincing China the need for it and overall, the FONOPs and the European pretense of one, have only been shown to be counterproductive for Western interests.
Both ships still have scaffoldimg around superstructure and are definitely not ready for sea trial.
There is a big difference in a posture.
80 yrs ago US Asiatic fleet(and other colonial fleets in the area) could go wherever they pleased, too. Until suddenly(and very swiftly) they couldn't anymore.
This - 055s(or, being more precise, 1st class navy) can change. But for now PLAN is nowhere near this level outside of its home waters.
A bit confused to what you are saying here, but navies are allowed to transit through any open waterway as long as they do not take military action.
Russia with a weaker fleet likes to delibrately go close with planes and ships to US formations. PLAN sometimes sail close to the US coast. It's not illegal by any stretch or even a provocation, just a way to show "we are here". Short of the other navy running out of money, it can be staged at any time.
What China can do to "counter" is to surround the passing force with an even larger force, or trail them unseen with submarines. That way they are also announcing their prescence and makes the other navy look weak. But there is no way to stop them from innocent passage, short of declaring the waterway off limits which may or may not be an act of war if it's international waters, like the straits.
That would be ship no. 2 and 3 then. #3 would be on the left, with an 052D, then #2. #1 which is the ship in trials, isn't here.
An interesting tidbit is that the 052D isn't a new one, but 172 Kunming, which is the first ship in her class. She has scaffolding on her radar panels. Upgrade perhaps? Will take a note of it if we can see a new picture of her after this date.
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