Chinese Type 055 ‘Super Destroyer’ conducts high intensity Anti-Submarine Warfare Drills in the South China Sea

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has deployed one of its eight Type 055 class heavy destroyers, the Zunyi, for free-form confrontational exercises targeting a simulated enemy in the South China Sea, highlighting many of the ship’s capabilities for such operations.

During the exercise the destroyer was tasked with reconnaissance and early warning missions for a naval task force, and managed to successfully acquire its target and gather a large amount of data in real time.

This allowed the task force to build up an all-directional battlefield situational awareness network. The Type 055 is a multi-role ship equipped for land attack, missile defense, anti-aircraft, anti-submarine warfare and anti-shipping roles, and is among the most heavily armed surface combatants in the world.

Yang Minghan, a crew member of the Zunyi, elaborated on the exercises that Type 055 class ships integrate host of advanced new systems and have a cutting-edge performance, meaning that the operation and underlying principles of the ship’s onboard equipment are very sophisticated.

By mastering every single detail with absolute clarity, and then connecting these thousands of details into lines, expanding them into a whole system, and weaving them into an integrated network, we can ultimately translate them into combat effectiveness.

Reporting on the exercises, the Global Times state media outlet noted that four aspects were key the Type 055’s effectiveness in anti-submarine operations, including intensive research in peacetime, precise calculations prior to combat, accurate control during combat, and thorough post-combat reviews.

The Zunyi has conducted multiple anti-submarine offensive and defensive drills since its commissioning.

With an estimated 13,000 ton displacement, the Type 055 is one of the largest destroyer classes in the world, allowing it to integrate particularly powerful sensors and armaments.

The class’ bow sonar and towed sonar systems are estimated to be significantly larger than those used by most other destroyer types, including the Type 052D class destroyer.

The ships have integrated cutting edge sensors technologies, including a dual band radar system similar to the SPY-3/SPY-4, which the U.S. Navy had intended but failed to integrate onto the Zumwalt class destroyer.

This has fuelled speculation that the ships have also integrated cutting edge new technologies onto their sonar systems, allowing them to detect submarines from farther ranges and with higher accuracy.

The ships can also accommodate two large rotary wing aircraft in their hangars, allowing each to deploy two Z-20F anti-submarine helicopters and achieve a greater operational coverage than other smaller destroyers can.

The location of the anti-submarine exercises in the South China Sea, where potential adversaries have conducted intensive submarine operations, highlights a primary theatre where the People’s Liberation Army may be forced to tackle underwater threats.

Xu Yi, a crew member of the Zunyi, said that the crew have pre-analysed the underwater terrains and marine environments of certain sea areas, as well as their impacts on acoustic propagation, which could improve the Type 055’s submarine detection capabilities during operations.

The depth of the South China Sea makes it optimal for submarine operations, which is particularly significant considering that the U.S. Navy is increasingly concentrating the operations of its nuclear powered attack submarines in the region.

The Zunyi has over the past year spent more than 200 days on long voyages, covering a distance of over 50,000 nautical miles, with operations including participation in aircraft carrier formation drills, combat patrols in the South China Sea, and simulating combat in distant seas.

Between mid February and early March the destroyer conducted live-fire exercises in international waters in the Tasman Sea near Australia, which was considered an unprecedented show of force in Oceanic territory.

The ship was the seventh of eight Type 055 class ships to be commissioned, and formally joined the Navy in November 2022, less than three years after its launch in December 2019.

The first Type 055 class destroyers from the second round of production, which is estimated to have included two further ships, are expected to enter service in the Navy in 2026.

While their service entry has served to significantly bolster Chinese anti-submarine warfare capabilities, the U.S. Navy has seen its own submarine fleet modernization plans hindered by a major shortfall in  production capacity.

The American submarine fleet is expected to remain far below planned numbers, with the country’s shipyards able to build just 1.2 attack submarines per year, while the Navy would optimally be procuring the ships almost twice as fast at 2.33 per year.

This major shortfall is expected to continue reduce pressure on Chinese defenses.

Military Watch Magazine / ABC Flash Point News 2026.