A dummy's guide to every single class of Chinese warships

Hello Imgur, today's post is a long one. We're going to take a brief look at every class of active People's Liberation Army Navy ships, from carriers to corvettes. Let's start off with aircraft carriers.

Admiral Kuznetsov's sister ship, the Varyag was only 68% when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. A decade later, the Ukrainian shipyard who still held onto the Varyag sold it to China. The rusting hulk was refurbished and commissioned into the Navy as CV-16 Liaoning in September 2012, named after the province it was refitted in.

Pretty standard specs for a non-nuclear carrier. 65,000 ton displacement, carries 24 Flanker fighters and a dozen helicopters. Protected by three Gatling guns and three short-ranged missile launchers. Liaoning is currently serving as a training platform for navy pilots.

Earlier this year an improved variant of the Liaoning was launched. The original Varyag had very inefficient steam boilers, as well as a badly arranged hanger bay that limited aircraft capacity. The CV-17 Shangdong features a slightly smaller island (the bridge/tower thingy) and better aircraft storage/handling facility.

Moving onto destroyers now. China's naval shipbuilding industry began withthe humble Type 051. 17 ships were built in the 1970s and only 4 remain in service today, with the rest now preserved in museums or as tourist attractions. Displacing 3,700 tons and armed with only six missiles, the Type 051 could hardly be called a warship in the 21st century.

China's first crack at a reasonably useful destroyer is the pair of Type 052 destroyers, built in early 1990s. Armed with sixteen anti-ship missiles, dual 100mm main gun, 37mm AA guns (replaced by 30mm CIWS after this photo was taken) and the Crotale anti-air missile. Also notable for being the first Chinese warship to have a helicopter hangar. During my trip to China in 2015, I had the opportunity to board DDG-113 Qingdao at its home-port ad namesake city. Both ships are still in service, but are slated to be replaced soon.

The sole Type 051B destroyer, DDG-167 Shenzhen, is essentially a stretched variant of the Type 052. A 10m long plug allowed the installation of a 32-cell missile launcher, but apart from that, the ship was similar to the earlier Type 052.

China found out the hard way that building warships from scratch is really, really hard. As a result, there was an urgent need for anti-ship and anti-air firepower. From 1999 to 2006, four slightly-modified Sovremennyy class destroyers were purchased from Russia. The Sovremennyy class are built around eight powerful P-270 'Sunburn' missiles. The absurdly strong defensive weapons suite includes two CIWS turrets each armed with four 30mm Gatling guns, 48 AA missiles and four 130mm guns. These four ships underwent extensive upgrades in 2015 and are expect to serve for many more years.

Type 052B consists of two ships, essentially electronics and the SAM systems of the Sovremenny mounted into a Chinese 051B hull. Featuring the same Fregat-MAE-5 and MR-90 radar guiding 48 'Buk' missiles found on its Russian counterpart.

Finally some good shit! The Type 052C destroyers are the first class of Chinese warships that are competitive against its Japanese, Korean and U.S counterparts. New features includes a liquid cooled phased array radar, a 48-cell anti-air missile launcher with four times the range of earlier 'Buk' missiles, two 30mm CIWS and a 100mm main gun provides close-in firepower. Eight YJ-8 anti-ship missiles with a 280km range is carried. The first of six 052Cs entered service in 2005.

Type 051B's hull is reused again in Type 051C destroyer, a dedicated air-defense and missile-defense ship. Main armament is 48 S-300FM long-range air defense missiles. Only two were built in 2006 before the switch towards better air defense systems mounted on bigger hulls.

The latest and greatest Type 052D. 13 ships of this class are planned and 7 are in active service right now. Features includes a bigger 64-cell vertical missile launcher for HQ-9 anti-air missiles or land attack cruise missiles plus a 24-cell short-ranged launcher, a cleaner exterior to reduce its radar signature, and indigenous gas turbine engines. Armed with the massively improved YJ-18 anti-ship missile, which cruises at subsonic speeds first, but sprints to mach 3 as it approaches the target.

Cute tugboats too.

Despite its 13,000 ton size, China insist that the Type 055 is a destroyer and not a cruiser. The lead ship of the class was only launched recently, being the biggest surface combatant in Asia since the Yamato-class battleships. Armed with 120 missile cells and dual-band radar, the Type 055 is a floating air-defense arsenal with AA firepower only matched by the Ticonderoga class cruisers. Admiral of the Navy Shen Jinlong denied allegations that he is trying to compensate for something with the Type 055.

Moving onto the smaller ships now. The Type 053 family of frigates are easily China's most popular warships. 40 ships were built for China and a dozen more sold to other countries. The later variants of this ship is reasonable adequate and cost-effective at anti-ship and anti-submarine duties, thus 13 ship are expected to serve until the 2020s. Carries 8 anti-ship missiles and two 100mm guns.

The new Type 054 frigates addresses some issues with the earlier 053 class, namely a lack of air-defense firepower and poor anti-submarine weapons. The 25-ship fleet provides coastal defense against air and submarine threats. Weapons includes a French 8-cell short ranged anti-air launcher(later replaced by a Chinese 32-cell), eight YJ-83 missiles and an anti-submarine helicopter.

I'm not sure why a huge fleet of 34 Type 056 corvettes are needed when the Type 054 does pretty much the same job. Primarily aimed at anti-submarine warfare, but also packs a few missiles to defend itself.

The seven remaining Type 037 corvettes should be classified as boats, not ships. Absolutely useless in open oceans and the missile armament is a bit outdated.

The Type 081 minesweeper, and it sweeps mines! This class of 1,000 ton ships was introduced in 2006, 11 are in service today.

I suspect the Type 22 missile boats are fairly cheap, since China built 84 of them from 2004 to 2012. Eight YJ-8 ship killing missiles, 30mm CIWS for defense and catamaran hull for stability, nothing interest really.

Now onto the support and replenishment ships, nobody kicks ass without fuel, ammo and food provided by these guys. Two Type 905 oilers were launched in the 1980s to support missile and satelite tracking mission, which required bast amounts of fuel. Each of these oilers could carry 10,000 tons of fuel and 400 tons of water. AOR-881 Hongze Lake here is flying the U.S flag during its visit to Pearl Harbor.

The sole Type 908 was originally constructed as a tanker ship for the Soviet Navy, but was purchased and refitted by China in 2006 as a multipurpose replenishment ship.

The Type 903 replenishment ships represent an improvement over the earlier 905s, featuring a larger helicopter pad and the ability to transport more dry cargo. All eight ships of the class are in service, each are capable of fueling three destroyers simultaneously.

The Eight Type 904 general store ships are not tankers, but they ferry dry cargo such as food and ammunition. They also carry helicopter landing pads in addition to a hangar.

When China launched it's first carrier back in 2012, it discovered a problem. Non of its diesel-powered replenishment ships could keep up with the carriers. While a carrier battle group cruises at 25 knots, China's existing supply ships could only reach 16 knots. The new Type 901 fast combat support ships, as the name suggests, are designed from the start to keep up and survive in dangerous environments. These 45,000 ton, gas-turbine powered giants are expected to replace earlier ships which are based on civilian hull designs.

Now onto amphibious warfare ships. The eighteen Type 074-class landing ship are tiny, with a payload of 3 tanks and 100 troops.

13 Type 073 landing ships were built from 2000 to 2006, 500 troops and 5 tanks could disembark from its forward ramp. However, with a top speed of 17 knots and only four 37mm guns, it is not very survivable.

The Type 072A family of tank landing ships form the backbone of China's heavyweight amphibious landing capability, capable of ferrying 500 tons of cargo and a helicopter. Very important if any conflict is to break out in the South China Sea island chains.

The Type 071 is a amphibious transport dock, carrying four hovercrafts and two helicopters. Like the American San-Antonio class, these 25,000 ton vessels are speedy and heavily protected.

China purchased 12 Kilo-class submarines from Russia from 1994 to 2004. They're reasonably cost-effective, and carries supersonic missiles too, just a bit small to be useful beyond coastal environments.

The Kilos are complemented by 13 smaller Type 039 submarines, think of these as slightly stealthier Kilos, but they lack the vertical missile tubes found on Kilos. Caused a bit of a shitstorm when one boat sneaked within 9km of the U.S.S Kitty Hawk carrier back in 2006.

The Type 039 is further improved as the 039A, which features a 3 meter long extension suspected to be a vertical missile cell. Other improvements includes a Stirling AIP engine (very quite, uses liquid oxygen and seawater-cooling for two weeks of underwater endurance) plus new electronics including the big, fat ESM/periscope mast you see here. 20 boats are planned (submarines are always called boats for some reason) and 15 have been delivered so far.

China's only nuclear ballistic missile submarines, the fleet of four Type 094 subs, are frankly quite awful. Armed with 12 ICBMs, their performance is roughly equal to the Soviet era Delta-class subs. This sub's noisy nuclear reactor combined with the poorly insulated and shaped hull generates too much noise for it to survive against submarine hunting assets.

Twice as big as their conventionally powered siblings, the four Type 093 subs each carries a 12-cell vertical missile launcher in a streamlined hull. However they are nosier than the AIP powered 039A, and general performance is not expected to be any better than the Flight III Los Angeles class subs built by America in the late 80s. Nuclear submarines are tricky to build, and experience from building surface vessels often don't apply to submarines.

Navy cat tax

Give yourself a pat on the back if you've managed to read all that...