An explainer about some vessels in the first joint naval exercises involving China and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations held their first joint naval exercises this week, as Beijing hoped to build stronger regional military ties to offset a growing rivalry with the United States in the disputed South China Sea.
The China-Asean Maritime Exercise got under way in Zhanjiang in southern China’s Guangdong province on Monday and over the course of six days included personnel from all 11 nations.
Six of them – China, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines – also sent warships to take part in the drills:
Guangzhou
The multi-missile destroyer Guangzhou has a displacement of 6,000 tonnes. Commissioned in 2004, it incorporates a hull form and superstructure designed to reduce the ship’s radar profile. It was the first destroyer from China’s home-grown series Type 052B, built for air defence.
Its anti-aircraft capabilities include the short-range (20 nautical miles) Russian SA-N-12 surface-to-air missile and a rotating 3D radar for primary air-search radar. To guard against submarines, it is equipped with two triple-tube torpedo launchers, and short-range (1,000 metre) rockets. The ship also has a helicopter deck. However, according to “China’s Evolving Surface Fleet”, a report by the US Naval War College last year, Guangzhou’s “war-fighting capabilities were outdated the day it was commissioned”.
Huangshan
China has also deployed Huangshan, one of its largest and most modern multi-mission frigates. The type 054A-class frigate was derived from the Type 054 (identified by Nato as the Jiangkai-II Class). It has a length of 134 meters (440 feet) and beam of 16 meters, with a displacement of 4,000 tonnes and a maximum speed of 27 knots.
The stealth frigate was locally built and has been in service since March 2008.
China once offered to sell three Type 054A frigates to Thailand in 2013, but lost out to South Korea, which offered its modified Gwanggaeto the Great-class destroyers.
In 2015, the cost of building and fitting out a Type 054A was estimated at US$348 million a vessel, according to an analysis in The Diplomat by Gabe Collins, a research fellow in the US Naval War College’s Maritime Studies Institute.
