The Type 051B destroyer (NATO reporting name: Luhai class) is a class of destroyer built by the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...

. It consists of only one ship, ''Shenzhen'' (167). When ''Shenzhen'' was commissioned into the

People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force The People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force is the surface warfare branch of China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), consisting of all surface vessels in operational service with the PLAN. The PLAN Surface Force operates 661 ships ...

in 1998, it was then the largest surface combatant that China had ever built. It resembles in many ways an enlarged version of the , and is one of the first PLAN ships with a slope-sided hull to reduce radar signature. The Type 051B was succeeded by the domestic Type 052B destroyer, discounting the 4 Soviet-built

Sovremenny-class destroyer The ''Sovremenny'' class, Soviet designation Project 956 ''Sarych'' (buzzard), is a class of anti-ship and anti-aircraft guided-missile destroyers of the Soviet and later Russian Navy. The ships are named after qualities, with "Sovremenny" tr ...

that China purchased in the interim.

History

''Shenzhen'' was laid down by the

Dalian Shipyard Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC), located in Dalian, Liaoning province, China. It is part of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), which has since been merged into China State Shipbuilding Corporation to form China's lar ...

in May 1996. The ''Shenzhen'' was intended to be an experimental vessel with improvements over the Luhu class in terms of modular construction and stealth. The ship is powered by two indigenous steam turbine engines, due to

's experience in steam turbine construction and that Chinese domestic research and development on marine gas turbines had not yet matured. The displacement of the Luhai class is 2,000 tons heavie