Chinese Navy prepares to initiate new warships amidst tension in South China Sea

Beijing : The United States and its allies have increased their movements in the South China Sea and in turn China has started to retaliate. The Chinese navy carried out surprise naval trials in the South China Sea last week; they also announced that they have initiated a new destroyer warship in the Chinese navy. Simultaneously, China is also speeding up its production of aircrafts that carry warships. It has plans to launch four new destroyer warships akin to the “Supership” by the year 2020.

A fortnight ago, “USS Decatur” the missile carrying destroyer of the United States was patrolling in the South China Sea. Then Australia too indicated that it will patrol the South China Sea along with Indonesia. At the same time, Japan along with Philippines started initiating tests too. Thus China is now facing this new challenge of continuous interference in the South China Sea from United States and its allies. Given this background, China has started to increase its dominance in the South China Sea by building new warships.

As per naval analysts, China has planned to build “Covert” type destroyers very frequently. It has been disclosed that since the past two months, the Chinese navy has started constructing four new “Coverts” in the ship-building industrial units in the Wuhan and Lushunkou districts. In the current year itself, China has included four Coverts into its naval fleet and five more are being tested. From the four Covert warships included in this year, three of them are stationed at their fleet in the South China Sea. By the end of 2016, China is planning to include two more Covert ships into its navy. It has been divulged that at the beginning of 2017, three more such Coverts are to be included in the Chinese naval fleet.

Along with the “Covert” type warships, China has also claimed to accelerate the building of the so called “Supership” -“Stealth – missile guided destroyer”. Analysts have indicated that this “Type 055” warship will undergo tests from next year. Chinese officials have shared that this warship, weighing almost 14,000 tons will be a “game changer” in marine warfare. It has been said that the warship has many special features; like more than 100 missiles, a helicopter, and an advanced radar along with “Auto marine capability”.

China has also announced that the main body of its pioneer indigenous aircraft carrier warship is ready and will be called “CV-17”. This will be included in its naval fleet by the year 2020. This warship will be second of its kind to be included in their fleet. China has an ambitious plan to include six aircraft carrying warships into its navy by the year 2025. Prior to this, China had made changes in the aircraft carrying warship that it had purchased from Russia. China had then introduced this very first warship into its navy in the year 2012 and had named it “Liaoning”.