055 DDG Large Destroyer Thread
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Hmmm ... so what about this report? Based on this information, the second Type 055 DDG 'Dalian' has been commissioned as no. 105 into the PLA Navy South Sea Fleet (SSF) on 25 December 2020.
In my observation, PLAN ships, destroyers and frigates at least are always numbered in groups according to the fleet that they are assigned to, never numbered according to where they are built. 052X fits to this convention too.
Regarding the fact that 112 through 116 are taken already by 052, I believe that new 055s will just begin to take available number from the series that are assigned since 052s.
To be seen as a new type of surface combatant, effectively a crusiser for 055, it would not be merely different number series within 1XX. Three digit ships within 100s are for destroyers, regardless being 101 or 199.
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Another thing I forgot to say in post 8399 is that name "Dalian" as a city in Liaoning is allocated to northern fleet (Qingdao ships) per naming regulation. It's being spotted around Hainan does not mean it is assigned to southern fleet (Hainan ships), it is just there for testing in tropical weather.
To be clear in one thing, the ship seen in Hainan has a funnel cap, and so far we have seen only Dalian made ships have this for whatever reason. So 105 is likely to be the first Dalian made 055 and the first ship we have seen in previous pictures to have a funnel cap. If 105 has been commissioned, then either the commissioning is out of order --- first Dalian 055 is third 055 overall --- or we have completely missed the commissioning of 102 Lhasa, and 105 Dalian would have been the third commissioning.
Yes, but 052 don't share the same hull design with 051 Luda, 051B/C and the Project 956, which all share the same pennant numbering system.
Frigates have a separate pennant numbering system of their own, and all the 056, 056A, 053H2, 053H3, 054 and 054A are all mixed in it.
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115 and 116 are 051C, and the never used 114, I suspect is for an aborted 051B, that was supposed to be the twin for 167 Shenzhen.
I can see 055 take over from 109 to 114, but I don't know if 115 and 116 will be scrapped soon as they are relatively newer ships, newer than the 051B, 052B, and two of the Project 956. Having said that, how they will MLU the two 051C remains unclear.
There are also pennant ranges that are empty, such as 14X, 18X and 19X.
With the way 055s pennants numbers are going, it makes it inherently difficult to track 055s potential fleet basing. Before, I realized that 101-129 numbers belong to North Sea Fleet, 130-159 to the ESF, and 160-199 to SSF. But now it's hard to tell with Type-055 #105 going to SSF.
Maybe the basing for 105-108 to the SSF are temporary, like PLAN just wants 4 055s for each 1 carrier. And since CV-17 might be going to SSF, they wanted 4 055s with her. Just like 4 055s with CV-16 in the NSF, for which their pennants (101-104) makes sense.
It's quite possible to attach current 055s numbers to carriers; essentially 4 055s for each carrier. And with the rumored 8 more being ordered (4 for Type-003/CV-18 and 4 more for the next Type-003/CV-19).
It's possible once those 8 055s and more are built, they will be a re-shuffle of ships with 105-108 joining the NSF and maybe the new ones taking appropriate pennant #s. I always had assumed new Destroyer squadrons would be created with 055s and 052Es filling 14x, 18x, and 19x pennant #s. And maybe PLAN creating another Destroyer squadrons with just 101-109/110 filled with 055s. destroyers.
This is all just pure speculation on my part.
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