''Chongqing'' (133) is a
Type 051 destroyer
The Type 051 destroyer (NATO/ OSD Luda-class destroyer) was a class of guided missile destroyers based on the hull of the Soviet deployed by China. It was the first guided missile destroyer fielded by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), ...
of the
People's Liberation Army Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy, also known as the People's Navy, PLA Navy or simply Chinese Navy, is the naval warfare military branch, branch of the People's Liberation Army, the national military of the People's Republic of China. It i ...
.
Development and design
The PLAN began designing a warship armed with guided missiles in 1960 based on the Soviet ''Neustrashimy'', with features from the , but the
Sino-Soviet split
The Sino-Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. This was primarily caused by divergences that arose from their ...
stopped work. Work resumed in 1965
[Forecast International: page 4] with nine ships being ordered.
[Jane's Fighting Ships 2004-2005: p. 127] Construction started in 1968, with trials beginning in 1971. The ships nominally entered service in the early 1970s, but few were fully operational before 1985; workmanship was poor due to the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
.
Construction of the second batch began in 1977,
[Jane's Fighting Ships 2009-2010: p. 139] with the last commissioning in 1991.
[Jane's Fighting Ships 2009-2010: p. 140] The second batch may have been ordered due to the Cultural Revolution disrupting development of a successor class.
These ships may be designated Type 051D.
The PLAN initiated an abortive modernization program for the first batch in 1982. The ships would be reconstructed with British weapons and sensors acquired from
British Aerospace
British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. ...
. The
Falklands War
The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
made the prospective upgrades less impressive and cost effective, and the project was cancelled in 1984. A 1986 upgrade project using American power plants, weapons, sensors, and computers was cancelled because of the US sanction from 1989 Tiananmen Square.
Construction and career
''Chongqing'' was launched on 31 October 1980 at the
Zhonghua Shipyard in
Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
. Commissioned on 15 November 1982.
In 1985, she completed close maneuvers against
Soviet Navy
The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...
battlecruiser Frunze.
She was decommissioned on 26 September 2014 and currently she sits at Tianjin Binhai Theme Park,
Tianjin
Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...
opposite of the
aircraft carrier Kiev.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chongqing
1980 ships
Ships built in China
Type 051 destroyers
Museum ships in China
Cold War destroyers of the People's Republic of China