Following the deployment of a Chinese carrier strike group built around the aircraft carrier Liaoning for operations near Japanese waters, considerable attention has been drawn to the capabilities of the warships and aircraft forming the core of the group’s combat capabilities. Alongside the Liaoning itself, which has recently seen its capabilities significantly enhanced with the deployment of new J-15B fighters and J-15D electronic attack aircraft, the Type 055 class destroyer Nanchang, and two smaller Type 052D class destroyers have provided a cutting edge combat capability rivalled only by that of carrier groups in the U.S. Navy. The capabilities of the Nanchang remain one of the most outstanding features of the strike group, as while the Liaoning itself is a smaller and less capable carrier than the new supercarrier Fujian, or than U.S. Navy supercarriers, the Type 055 is widely considered to be the world’s most capable destroyer class.
The Nanchang was launched in June 2017, and commissioned into active service at Qingdao Naval Base in January 2020, as the sixth Type 055 class ship to join the fleet service. Displacing 13,000 tons fully loaded, and carrying 112 vertical launch cells for cruise and surface-to-air missiles, it is among the largest and most heavily armed surface combatants in the world, and integrates some of the world’s most advanced missile types. These including missile from the HHQ-9B system with 300 kilometre ranges, and the YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile which has no near peer rivals in the world. The integration of a dual band radar system similar to the SPY-3/SPY-4 which the U.S. Navy had intended but failed to integrate onto the Zumwalt class destroyer provides a particularly high degree of situational awareness to the strike group, including over-the-horizon detection capabilities.
The Type 055 class’ unique sensor suite is expected to provide a situational awareness advantage over rival destroyer types including the Zumwalt, Arleigh Burke, Japanese Kongo class, and South Korean Sejong the Great class, which are considered the most capable fielded outside China. The destroyer type demonstrated its capabilities when the Zunyi led live fire drills in international waters off the coast of New South Wales, Australia, in February 2025, with the ships considered capable of repelling significant adversary forces even when not operating with support from other destroyers, carriers, or any kind of fixed wing aviation. The particularly long reaches of their missiles and sensors, which are expected to facilitate first strikes against potential targets, remains a major factor in the favour of the Type 055 that could allow the ships to engage fleets several times larger. When integrated with the newly updated and much improved air wing of the Liaoning, the Nanchang’s combat potential is expected to be significantly greater still.