''Xining'' (108) 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 1965Forecast 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 the 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

1989 Tiananmen Square protests The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led Demonstration (people), demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsucces ...

Construction and career

''Xining'' was launched on 16 October 1978 at the Luda 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 29 January 1980. She was decommissioned on 25 September 2013 and currently she lies at Taizhou Naval Museum, Taizhou as a museum ship near the Taizhou Yangtze River Bridge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xining 1978 ships Ships built in China Type 051 destroyers Museum ships in China Cold War destroyers of the People's Republic of China