China's Renhai class: Presentation of the Xianyang super destroyer

With the hull number 108, the Xianyang, the eighth destroyer of the Renhai class (type 055), was officially presented to the public two months ago at the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC) in the northern Chinese harbour complex of Dalian. A video praising the beauty and strength of this super destroyer - or FK cruiser - also serves this purpose. Not without good reason, as the 180-metre-long ships, which displace more than 12,000 tonnes and have two vertical launch silos for a total of 112 missiles of all Chinese designs, are among the most powerful and largest combat ships in the world. This makes them even more powerful than the FK cruisers of the American Ticonderoga class, especially as these will soon reach the end of their service life and the first examples have already been decommissioned. In contrast, the smaller destroyers of Lot III of the Arleigh Burke class are built on systems that have been running for years and have been modernised time and again. They should therefore be at least as technologically up-to-date as the Renhais, but have fewer teething troubles. With the commissioning of the Xianyang, this batch of eight Renhai class ships has been completed for the time being. Four were built at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai for the Northern Fleet and another four about a thousand kilometres to the north in Dalian for the Southern Fleet. However, further newbuildings are thought to be under construction at the two shipyards.