CHINA-PLA NAVY: NEW DESTROYER
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China's official news agency Xinhua reported on June 28, 2017, that China had the same day launched a new type of domestically-built destroyer. The Xinhua report added that the 10,000-tonne warship was launched at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, making it the first of the PLA's "new generation" destroyers, and "It is equipped with new air defense, anti-missile, anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons." The state-run Global Times newspaper said the ship was believed to be the first Type 055 destroyer, considered a successor class to the smaller Type 052D guided missile destroyers.
(Comment: China is rapidly producing warships as it modernizes the PLA Navy, which has assumed an increasingly prominent role in recent years. China's official media has said that the navy commissioned 18 ships, including destroyers, corvettes and guided-missile frigates in 2016.)
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