''Qiqihar'' (121) is a

Type 052D destroyer The Type 052D destroyer (NATO/ OSD reporting name: Luyang III-class destroyer) is a class of guided-missile destroyers in the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and currently one of the most numerous principal surface combatant class ...

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 ...

. She was commissioned on 8 August 2020.

Development and design

The basic ship type and layout of the ''Type 052D'' guided-missile destroyer is the same as that of the

Type 052C destroyer The Type 052C destroyer (NATO/ OSD Luyang II-class destroyer) is a class of guided-missile destroyers in the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force (PLAN). The Type 052C introduced both fixed active electronically scanned array (AE ...

, but compared to the earlier Type 052C destroyer, the Type 052D superstructure has a larger inclination angle and provides better stealth performance. At the same time, the 052C helicopter hangar is located The left side of the hull axis was changed to the center axis of the ship on Type 052D; a pair of small boat storage compartments were added on both sides of the hangar, similar to the design on the

Type 054A frigate The Type 054A (NATO/ OSD Jiangkai II) is a Ship class, class of guided-missile frigate from the People's Republic of China. It is a development of the Type 054 frigate; compared to its predecessor, the Type 054A has medium-range air defense capa ...

. The close in weapon system is composed of a H/PJ-12 short-range defense weapon system located in front of the bridge and a 24 Hongqi-10 air defense missile system located on the top of the hangar, which is combined to form a ladder interception. The original 100mm naval gun was replaced by a higher height and better stealth model H/PJ45 naval gun. On May 13, 2019, the extended version of the 052DL was exposed. The hull of the 052DL is basically the same as the 052D, but the helicopter deck is lengthened to prepare for the Zhi-20 to board the ship. The Type 52D is the first Chinese surface combatant to use canister-based universal VLS, as opposed to the concentric type VLS carried aboard earlier vessels. 64 cells are carried; 32 forward and 32 aft.Li: page 44 The VLS is reportedly an implementation of the

GJB 5860-2006 GJB 5860-2006 () is a Chinese military technical standard describing a vertical launching system (VLS) for all types of missiles aboard surface combatants. Cells have a square crossection with sides, and may be , , or deep. Each cell carries one ...

standard. The VLS may fire the extended-range variant of the HHQ-9 surface-to-air missile,

YJ-18 The YJ-18 (, NATO designation CH-SS-NX-13) is a Chinese anti-ship cruise missile. Description The United States believes the YJ-18 is similar to, or is a copy of, the Russian 3M-54 Klub. According to the United States Department of Defense, t ...

anti-ship cruise missiles, and CY-5 anti-submarine missiles.

Construction and career

''Qiqihar'' is launched on 26 June 2017 at the

Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC) is a shipbuilding state-owned enterprise located in Dalian, Liaoning province, China. It is part of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), which has since been merged into China State S ...

Dalian Dalian ( ) is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China (after Shenyang ...

. Commissioned on 14 August 2020. On 2 March 2021,

Huainan Huainan () is a prefecture-level city with 3,033,528 inhabitants as of the 2020 census in north-central Anhui province, China. It is named for the Han-era Principality of Huainan. It borders the provincial capital of Hefei to the south, Lu' ...

Tangshan Tangshan ( zh, c=唐山 , p=Tángshān) is a coastal, industrial prefecture-level city in the northeast of Hebei province. It is located in the eastern part of Hebei Province and the northeastern part of the North China Plain. It is located in t ...

, ''Qiqihar'' and

Zhangjiakou Zhangjiakou (), also known as Kalgan and by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province in Northern China, bordering Beijing to the southeast, Inner Mongolia to the north and west, and Shanxi to the southwest ...

conducted a training exercise in the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. Names It is one of four ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qiqihar 2017 ships Ships built in China Type 052D destroyers